Miliband orders 'urgent' probe into Heathrow outage

Report expected in six weeks after embarrassing’ shutdown

- ANDY GREGORY

Ministers have ordered an urgent probe into the substation fire which forced Heathrow airport to close for 15 hours on Friday as experts claimed the remarkable meltdown had "embarrassed" Britain on the global stage.

The travel plans of up to 300,000 passengers were cast into disarray on Friday after the blaze at a single west London substation grounded more than 1,300 flights between Europe’s busiest airport and locations across the globe.

While the airport declared itself “fully operational” once again yesterday – with hundreds of extra airport staff rallied to facilitate an additional 10,000 passengers travelling through Heathrow – more than 100 flights were cancelled, including those travelling to New York and arriving from Dubai. Heathrow would typically expect to facilitate 600 flights on a Saturday.

After counter-terrorism officers were initially called in to lead the investigation into the fire, police confirmed yesterday that the blaze was believed to be non-suspicious and said the London Fire Brigade would instead lead a probe focusing on electrical distribution equipment.

Criticism of the situation has since intensified, with Labour peer Toby Harris – who leads the National Preparedness Commission, which campaigns to improve resilience – saying: “It’s a huge embarrassment for the country that a fire in one electricity substation can have such a devastating effect.”

Jason Bona, owner of supply chain firm PS Forwarding, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the incident made Heathrow a “laughing stock” in the global freight community.

“It is a clear planning failure by the airport,” said Willie Walsh, a former British Airways chief who now leads the global airline body IATA and has long been a fierce critic of Heathrow.