Heathrow power supply fears were raised days before substation fire, MPs hear

Heathrow airport was warned about its power supply in the days before it closed because of a fire, MPs were told.

Transcript

00:00It has over 80 airlines operating through the airport.

00:06It is the hub for the UK, and it's the major hub for Europe, we contest.

00:12And as such, we need to make sure that it is resilient.

00:17It is the most expensive airport in the world with regard to passenger charges.

00:21So from our perspective, that means we should actually have the best service.

00:25We should have the best infrastructure.

00:28Mr Wickling tells the Transport Select Committee that he spoke to the Team Heathrow Director

00:35on the 15th of March about his power-related concerns, and the Chief Operating Officer

00:42and Chief Customer Officer on the 19th of March, again about the same topic.

00:47On the 21st of March, Heathrow Airport was closed to all flights until around 6pm.

00:53This was, of course, because of a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity

01:00substation in Hays, which started late the previous night.

01:06This incident disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys, and ultimately caused

01:12travel chaos on an international scale.

01:16Mr Wickling claims the shutdown had cost airlines £60m to £100m.

01:24Chief Executive of Heathrow Airport, Thomas Waldby, has defended the airport's closure,

01:31suggesting it would have been dangerous to open the airport prematurely, telling the

01:38committee the decision to close Heathrow was made, quote-unquote, because it became

01:45quite clear we could not operate the airport safely.

01:50He says keeping it open would have resulted in the disastrous scenario of having thousands

01:58of passengers stranded at the airport at high risk to personal injury.

02:05I think, maybe to address that point, why did we close the airport?

02:10When we cannot safely operate the airport, and when we cannot guarantee and have full

02:18visibility and transparency on the fact that we can operate the airport safely, then we

02:22cannot operate the airport.

02:24I think the only thing we could have done worse than that would have been to let passengers

02:28travel from an unsafe airport.