Blasts heard by residents who had to evacuate homes , 200K passengers left stranded after flights axed all day.
RESIDENTS living near Heathrow yesterday told how they heard two blasts at the electrical plant that went up in flames, sparking travel chaos around the world.
The substation inferno crippled Europe's busiest airport for an entire day, leaving passengers stranded in London and countries far and wide, and plunging flights for many over the next few days into doubt.
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye called the shutdown "unprecedented" and there were questions raised about why a major global hub is reliant on just one electricity source.
A huge plume of smoke filled the night sky as the fire raged in Hayes, West London. It started at 11.23pm on Thursday and burned through the night and most of yesterday.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/2266216644.jpg]
Around 200,000 passengers were affected by the closure with more than 1350 planes reportedly due to take off and land at the airport.
Some flights resumed last night in a bid to shift the backlog. A British Airways jet to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia was the first to leave.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/1421344761.jpg]
Anti-terror police were initially called to investigate the inferno, after the blasts set light to 25,000 litres of cooling oil.
But London Fire Brigade last night revealed it believed the blaze was "nonsuspicious" and Scotland Yard said there was "no indication of foul play". Woldbye insisted the blaze was of a "major severity". He added: "It's not a small fire.
"We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport." Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow's power system, he replied: "You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100 per cent and this is one of them. "This has been a major incident.
Short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are coming back quite fast I would say, when you consider the amount of systems that we have to shut down then bring back up and make sure that they're safe." Energy analysis firm Montel Group said two National Grid substations are close to Heathrow but it appears only the one in Hayes was connected to the airport. Director Phil Hewitt added: "This potential lack of resilience at a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/2125417445.jpg]
"An airport as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single point of failure." Former BA boss Willie Walsh, now director general of airline industry group IATA said: "How is it that critical infrastructure, of national and global importance, is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative?" And ex-GCHQ head David Omand added: "I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day. It is a national embarrassment." Transport Secretary...
RESIDENTS living near Heathrow yesterday told how they heard two blasts at the electrical plant that went up in flames, sparking travel chaos around the world.
The substation inferno crippled Europe's busiest airport for an entire day, leaving passengers stranded in London and countries far and wide, and plunging flights for many over the next few days into doubt.
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye called the shutdown "unprecedented" and there were questions raised about why a major global hub is reliant on just one electricity source.
A huge plume of smoke filled the night sky as the fire raged in Hayes, West London. It started at 11.23pm on Thursday and burned through the night and most of yesterday.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/2266216644.jpg]
Around 200,000 passengers were affected by the closure with more than 1350 planes reportedly due to take off and land at the airport.
Some flights resumed last night in a bid to shift the backlog. A British Airways jet to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia was the first to leave.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/1421344761.jpg]
Anti-terror police were initially called to investigate the inferno, after the blasts set light to 25,000 litres of cooling oil.
But London Fire Brigade last night revealed it believed the blaze was "nonsuspicious" and Scotland Yard said there was "no indication of foul play". Woldbye insisted the blaze was of a "major severity". He added: "It's not a small fire.
"We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport." Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow's power system, he replied: "You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100 per cent and this is one of them. "This has been a major incident.
Short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are coming back quite fast I would say, when you consider the amount of systems that we have to shut down then bring back up and make sure that they're safe." Energy analysis firm Montel Group said two National Grid substations are close to Heathrow but it appears only the one in Hayes was connected to the airport. Director Phil Hewitt added: "This potential lack of resilience at a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1583517504/1742610876/articles/fpdSI7ev99epWkAOcrsys/2125417445.jpg]
"An airport as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single point of failure." Former BA boss Willie Walsh, now director general of airline industry group IATA said: "How is it that critical infrastructure, of national and global importance, is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative?" And ex-GCHQ head David Omand added: "I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day. It is a national embarrassment." Transport Secretary...
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Daily Record (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 22, 2025