Inquiry finds airport chief's phone was on silent as fire evolved

ATTEMPTS to tell Heathrow’s sleeping chief executive that the airport had been closed because of a power outage failed because his bedside phone was on silent, an inquiry has found.

- By NEIL LANCEFIELD

Thomas Woldbye was in bed as senior Heathrow staff decided to suspend operations because of a fire at a nearby electrical substation.

No flights operated at the airport until about 6pm on Friday, March 21 because of the blaze, which ignited late the previous night. More than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the incident.

Heathrow commissioned an inquiry into what happened, led by former Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of the airport's board.

The Kelly Review found that Mr Woldbye “was not involved” in the decision taken by the airport's chief operating officer Javier Echave at 1.15am on March 21 to suspend operations until 11.59pm.

Mr Woldbye’s mobile was “on his bedside table’, but he was unaware of multiple attempts to alert him to the situation as the device was on silent mode, the Kelly Review said.

Alerts known as F24 alarms were sent to Mr Woldbye's mobile at 12.21am and 1.52am to activate emergency procedures, and Mr Echave tried to call him several times.