The British government has ordered an investigation into the country's "energy resilience." This follows a fire at a power substation that shut down London's Heathrow Airport for nearly a day and raised concerns about Britain's ability to cope with disasters or attacks on critical infrastructure. The incident exposed the vulnerability of the UK's energy system in responding to emergencies, highlighting the need for improved preparedness.
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03-26, 2025Although Heathrow Airport stated it is now "fully operational," thousands of passengers remain stranded. Airlines have warned that severe flight disruptions will continue for days due to the need to reschedule aircraft and crews and transport passengers to their destinations. Stranded passengers, angry airlines, and concerned politicians all want to know why a seemingly accidental fire could shut down Europe's busiest aviation hub, demanding a thorough explanation and accountability.
Labor politician Toby Harris, head of the National Preparedness Commission, said: "This is a huge embarrassment for Heathrow. It's a huge embarrassment for the whole country that a fire in an electricity substation can cause such devastation." Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he had asked the National Energy System Operator, which regulates Britain's gas and electricity networks, to conduct an "urgent investigation" into the fire to "understand what wider lessons can be learned in terms of energy resilience of critical national infrastructure." The preliminary findings are expected to be reported within six weeks, providing a timeline for addressing the concerns.
Miliband stated: "The government is determined to do everything possible to prevent a repeat of the events at Heathrow." Heathrow Airport also announced it would launch its own review, led by Ruth Kelly, a member of the airport's board and former Transport Secretary. Heathrow Chairman Paul Deighton said Kelly would investigate "the robustness and execution of Heathrow's crisis management plans, the airport's response during the incident, and the airport's recovery," aiming to identify areas for improvement in their emergency response protocols.
More than 1,300 flights were canceled on Friday, leaving about 200,000 people stranded, after a fire at a substation 3.2 kilometers from Heathrow Airport caused power outages at the airport and to more than 60,000 homes. Heathrow Airport said on Saturday that it had "added flights to today's flight schedule to carry an additional 10,000 passengers." British Airways, Heathrow's largest airline, said it expected to operate about 85% of its 600 scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday, working to alleviate the backlog.
Although many passengers managed to resume their interrupted journeys, some remained in distress. Laura Fritsch from Kansas City was on vacation in Ireland with her family when she learned of her father's death. On Saturday, her British Airways flight to Chicago was canceled at the last minute, leaving her stranded at Heathrow. "I'm just so frustrated," she said. "This was the first big vacation I've taken with my kids since my husband died, and now this happens. So I just want to go home," highlighting the personal impact of the disruption.
Residents in West London said they heard a loud bang, then saw a fireball and billowing smoke as the fire engulfed the substation. The fire was brought under control seven hours later, but the airport was closed for nearly 18 hours. A small number of flights took off and landed later on Friday evening. Police said they did not believe the fire was suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the substation's distribution equipment, seeking the root cause of the incident.
Nevertheless, the massive impact of the fire has raised questions for authorities about Britain's faltering infrastructure, much of which has been privatized since the 1980s. The center-left Labor government has pledged to improve Britain's delay-plagued railways, aging water systems, and energy networks, promising to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy independence by investing in wind and other renewable energy sources, emphasizing a commitment to infrastructure modernization.
Harris stated: "Over the past 40, 50 years, we've been trying to make services more efficient. We've taken out the slack, we've streamlined processes. We've moved to a 'just in time' economy. At some point, you have to make sure you're prepared for the 'just in case.' You have to plan for things that might go wrong," advocating for a more resilient and prepared approach to infrastructure management.
Heathrow Airport CEO Thomas Woldbye said he was "proud" of the way the airport and airline staff responded. He told the BBC: "The airport wasn't closed for days. We only closed it for a few hours." Woldbye said Heathrow's backup power, designed for emergencies, worked as expected but was not sufficient to run the entire airport, which consumes the energy equivalent of a small city. "That's how most airports operate," Woldbye said, insisting "the same thing would have happened at other airports if they had a similar fire," defending the airport's preparedness.
But Willie Walsh, head of the airline trade organization International Air Transport Association, said the incident "raises some serious questions." He said: "How can critical infrastructure, vital to national and global importance, be so completely reliant on a single source of power with no back-up? If that is indeed the case, then it is clearly a planning failure at the airport." Walsh said "there is little incentive for Heathrow to improve" because the costs of caring for disrupted passengers are borne by the airlines, not the airport, highlighting a potential misalignment of incentives.
Friday's disruption was one of the worst incidents since the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which closed European airspace for days. About 120 flights were in the air when Friday's closure was announced, and they ended up landing in different cities, even different countries. Mark Daugherty and his wife were halfway across the Atlantic when the in-flight map showed their flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Heathrow was returning to New York. "I was like, you've got to be kidding me," Daugherty said. He called the situation "typically British - no backup plan for anything like this happening. No contingency plan," criticizing the lack of preparedness and resilience in the system.
