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Terminal fault Heathrow fire raises questions about airport's backup systems
The Guardian Weekly
|March 28, 2025
As Britain's biggest airport, Europe's main gateway to the Americas, and the apple of Rachel Reeves's eye for growth, Heathrow's shutdown last Friday gave a supersized significance to a substation fire.
Some were quick to question the creaking state of national infrastructure. Where were the backup systems - or indeed the further failsafes when the backups went up in smoke? Should Heathrow be better prepared, given the critical importance of the hub airport - not least to the 250,000 or so international travellers who were expecting to fly in or out that day? It was two days before the airport returned to normal. More than 1,000 flights were cancelled last Friday, and flights restarted on Saturday.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, ordered the National Energy System Operator to investigate the power outage. An internal review of the airport's crisis management plans and its response will be undertaken by the former transport secretary Ruth Kelly.
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