Fresh questions were raised tonight over the decision to close Heathrow after the boss of the National Grid insisted enough power remained to keep the airport running following last week’s fire at an electricity substation.
In his first comments since the fire broke out late on Thursday night, John Pettigrew said that, while one nearby substation was knocked out by an ‘unprecedented’ blaze, two others serving the airport were working throughout.
‘Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow,’ he told The Financial Times, adding it was a ‘question for Heathrow’ why it took the decision to close the airport.
He added: ‘Losing a substation is a unique event – but there were two others available. So that is a level of resilience.’
Around 200,000 passengers were affected by the decision to close the airport in the early hours of Friday morning, which resulted in planes being diverted or returned to their city of origin while still in the air.
The disruption is expected to have cost airlines tens of millions of pounds.
Flights had largely returned to normal today but there was criticism of Heathrow’s leadership as it emerged chief executive Thomas Woldbye had gone to bed as the fire raged and flights were cancelled – leaving the decision to close the airport to his number two.
Mr Woldbye had been at an event in central London when the fire broke out shortly after 11pm on Thursday.
The CEO of the National Grid John Pettigrew (pictured) said that, while one nearby substation was knocked out by an ‘unprecedented’ blaze, two others serving the airport were working throughout
Heathrow Airport’s CEO Thomas Woldbye is pictured above. Following the fire it was decided that Woldbye’s team would go to bed just after midnight
The fire at a electric substation close to the airport started at just before 11pm on Thursday night
As the airport was plunged into darkness the airport’s senior leadership was split into two ‘gold command’ teams.
At about 12.30am it was decided that Woldbye’s team would go to bed, according to The Sunday Times.
The official announcement that Heathrow was closed came at 1.44am on Friday, on the orders of Javier Echave, the airport’s chief operating officer.
Mr Woldbye then dialled back into a call with senior leadership at 7.30am on Friday before arriving at the airport’s head office shortly after 9am.
Today, a Heathrow spokesman said it ‘did not recognise the description of proceedings’ but confirmed it was following a ‘robust crisis protocol’ so ‘experienced leaders [are] able to take key decisions having had adequate rest.’
The spokesman added: ‘This protocol was followed so that Thomas [Woldbye], and his whole senior leadership team, were exactly where they were supposed to be during an incident of this scale.’
Asked on Saturday on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme whether he should resign, Mr Woldbye, the Danish former boss of Copenhagen Airport who took over at Heathrow in 2023, said ‘no comment’.
He added: ‘I’ll let others judge that, if they think that’s an issue.’
Passengers Kim Schmidt (right) with his wife Julia, and daughter, Shalene. The family had been due to fly back to Hamburg on Friday night
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has also ordered the National Energy System Operator to ‘urgently investigate’ the power outage
But, Mr Woldbye, who was paid more than £3million last year, did face calls to hold himself accountable for the fiasco. An internal review of the airport’s crisis management plans and its response to the power outage will be undertaken by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of Heathrow’s board.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has also ordered the National Energy System Operator to ‘urgently investigate’ the power outage.
One senior Tory MP said: ‘What happened at Heathrow was a national embarrassment. Stories of decision-makers going back to bed aren’t going to give the public confidence that this airport is being properly run or managed.
‘This investigation has to move quickly as there is nothing to say that this won’t happen time and time again. The public can’t wait six months for a clipboard exercise to say something went wrong – immediate steps need to be taken to ensure that this can’t happen again and there are robust backup systems in place.’
At Heathrow, many passengers affected by the power outage were still attempting to make their way home and vented their fury at Mr Woldbye and the impact of the substation fire.
Estate agent Kim Schmidt, 55, was originally due to travel back to his home in Hamburg on Friday with his wife, Julia, and daughter, Shalene. He spoke to the Mail while preparing to finally return to Germany.
‘We were lucky – we have been staying with my sister but they did not offer any emergency accommodation or get in touch,’ Mr Schmidt said.
‘I think the CEO should absolutely resign. He handled the situation badly.
‘If my airport was going to close, I’d want to be there to check what’s going on.’
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police initially led the investigation into the fire, but the force said the fire is not believed to be suspicious so London Fire Brigade is now leading the probe which will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
The fire at the Hayes substation broke out shortly after 11pm on Thursday and Heathrow announced it would close for most of Friday hours later
The electric substation the morning after it caused a fire which led to widespread disruption that is expected to have cost airlines tens of millions of pounds
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority [CAA] said: ‘We require Heathrow to have a resilience plan to cover periods of disruption and we also require it to work with other parties at the airport to manage and recover from it
‘There will of course be lessons learned from this event.’
A Heathrow spokesman added: ‘We apologise for the inconvenience caused by our decision to close the airport on Friday following a significant fire at an off-site power substation.’
Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘As the National Grid’s chief executive, John Pettigrew, noted, he has never seen a transformer failure like this in his 30 years in the industry. His view confirms that this was an unprecedented incident and that it would not have been possible for Heathrow to operate uninterrupted. Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted. Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.
‘In line with our airline partners, our objective was to reopen as soon as safely and practically possible after the fire. The emergency services and hundreds of airport colleagues worked tirelessly throughout Friday to ensure the safe reopening of the airport. Their success meant that over the weekend, we were able to focus on operating a full schedule of over 2500 flights and serving over 400,000 passengers.
‘Lessons can and will be learned, which is why we fully support the independent investigation announced by the Government yesterday.’
