Heathrow ‘responded well’ to power outage despite sleeping CEO, report says
Heathrow Airport “responded well” to the power outage incident in March despite its chief executive sleeping through a key decision on whether to stop operations, an internal review, commissioned by the airport, found.
More than 200,000 passengers around the world faced disruption as Heathrow opted to stop operations following a fire at the nearby North Hyde substation. It is estimated to have cost the airline industry close to £100m.
The incident sparked intense scrutiny over the way in which the airport’s management handled the crisis.
Heathrow commissioned an internal review in March, to be led by former Secretary of State for Transport and board member, Ruth Kelly.
Chief executive Thomas Woldbye, who faced backlash amid reports he slept through the night the fire raged, said on Wednesday the report’s findings confirmed Heathrow had made the “right decisions on the day and successfully put safety first without a single injury reported.”
“Investments in energy resilience have been and will continue to be part of our strategy, and our response to this unprecedented incident was effective due to well-drilled procedures.”
Heathrow boss phone on ‘silent mode’
But Kelly’s report found Heathrow’s chief operating officer Javier Echave had attempted to call a sleeping Woldbye several times on the night of the crisis yet was unable to get through.
Woldbyes phone had “gone into silent mode, without him being aware it had done so and he was asleep at the time,” the report reads.
This came after he had already missed an alert known as F24, which had been sent to all Heathrow personnel relevant to the incident.
The airport’s boss expressed “deep regret” at not being contactable given Echave had not been appointed by him to take charge of the incident, the report said.
But it concluded the decision to stop operations would not have changed regardless of whether Echave or Woldbye had been in charge.
National Grid, which operates the North Hyde substation alongside SSEN, had previously claimed Heathrow “had enough power” to remain open as two other substations were operational on the day.
While there “may have been opportunities to open parts of the airport slightly sooner,” this likely would have been only by a maximum of “a couple of hours or so,” Kelly’s report found.
“The evidence confirms that Heathrow made the right decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances,” the former transport secretary said in a statement following its publication.
“Whilst the disruption was significant, alternative choices on the day would not have materially changed the outcome. The airport had contingency plans in place, and the report highlights that further planned investment in energy resilience will be key to reducing the impact of any similar events in the future.”
Woldbye added he hoped a final report from the National Energy System Operator (NESO) would address “key questions for National Grid and SSEN – particularly how this fire could begin and why all three transformers failed.”
The review provided 28 recommendations. These included working on improving communication between Heathrow and power distributor SSEN and assessing whether back-up generators could provide added resilience.