What does it take to shut down one of the world’s busiest airports? Apparently, just one fire at a nearby substation.
Heathrow was thrown into chaos after a massive power outage grounded flights and diverted planes across Europe.
The disruption left 200,000 passengers stranded.
“This is as big as it gets for our airport,” admitted Heathrow’s CEO, Thomas Woldbye, as airlines scrambled to resume operations.
With a backup transformer failing, airport systems had to be shut down, forcing a complete reset of power distribution.
What Was The Result?
British Airways managed to get a handful of long-haul flights off the ground late Friday.
Meanwhile, airlines like Air Canada and United announced they were resuming operations.
Temporary overnight flight restrictions were lifted in a desperate bid to clear the backlog.
Meanwhile, an investigation is underway.
Was Heathrow’s power infrastructure too vulnerable? Ofgem, the UK’s energy regulator, has launched a review to find out what went wrong.
It also aims to determine how to prevent future failures.
For passengers, frustration was unavoidable.
For Heathrow, this was a wake-up call.
After all, if a single fire can paralyze an airport the size of a small city, what does that say about resilience?
