Heathrow Airport Restarted After Shutdown, British Government and Airport Conduct Investigation

Heathrow Airport in London, UK, was forced to shut down recently due to a sudden fire at a nearby substation, causing global flight chaos. Despite reopening on Saturday, flight operations have not fully resumed. The UK government and airport authorities have initiated independent investigations to thoroughly review the causes of the incident and response mechanisms.

The incident occurred on Thursday evening when a substation operated by National Grid in North Hyde, West London, caught fire, resulting in a widespread power outage at Heathrow Airport. The airport was forced to close in the early hours of Friday, leading to numerous flight cancellations or diversions.

As Europe’s busiest aviation hub, Heathrow Airport handles approximately 1,300 flights per day. On the day of the incident, a total of 1,351 flights were canceled or diverted, affecting over 290,000 passengers globally, making it one of the most severe aviation disruptions since the 2010 Icelandic volcano eruption.

UK Energy Minister Ed Miliband has instructed the national energy system operator to conduct an emergency investigation to determine why a single substation fire could cripple an entire airport, emphasizing the need to strengthen the energy resilience of critical infrastructure.

On the airport side, former Transport Minister and current independent director Ruth Kelly has been appointed to lead an internal review to examine disaster response mechanisms, information dissemination processes, and backup capabilities.

London police have preliminarily ruled out malicious sabotage or terrorist attacks, focusing the investigation on faults in the electrical distribution system equipment. The London Fire Brigade is conducting forensic examinations on the substation equipment and facilities.

Although airport management emphasized that operations were “fully restored” on Saturday morning, airlines reported ongoing chaos. As of the afternoon, at least 100 flights were still canceled.

British Airways, the largest operator at Heathrow, canceled approximately 15% of flights (about 90 flights). Virgin Atlantic and Air India stated that they needed time to adjust schedules and redeploy personnel and aircraft.

Aviation consultant John Strickland pointed out that many long-haul flights, especially British Airways’, were forced to land at unplanned airports. Without crew present, flights could not take off, creating a chain reaction disaster.

Industry insiders expressed dissatisfaction with the airport’s claim of “full recovery,” believing it overlooked the actual challenges faced by airlines in adjusting global crew and aircraft schedules.

In addition, to manage the influx of passengers, the airport temporarily deployed hundreds of ground and security personnel to assist over 10,000 additional passengers with customs and security checks.

Former CEO of British Airways and current Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Willie Walsh, criticized the Heathrow Airport shutdown incident caused by the fire, attributing it to a significant error in emergency planning.

The British media also heavily criticized the situation, with The Sun titling “UK Embarrassed by Airport Chaos” and The Daily Mail describing the disaster as “absurdly extreme.”

Reports highlighted frequent technical failures at Heathrow and other London airports in recent years, including the 2023 incidents of automatic gates and air traffic control system interruptions, prompting concerns about the UK airports’ infrastructure capabilities.

The energy regulatory body, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), urged the government and businesses to review and enhance the reliability of critical national infrastructure.

National Grid has pledged to implement new measures to strengthen system resilience and confirmed that power supply has been fully restored. Relevant authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of the fire and system vulnerabilities.

(This article referenced relevant reports from Reuters and the Financial Times of the UK)