Global travel chaos after fire closes London’s Heathrow Airport

Heathrow power fix would’ve taken hours, says expert

Simon Gallagher, founder of UK Network Services, said Heathrow could have had enough power from one live substation during the outage, but it would have taken hours to reconfigure the airport's network. He acknowledged National Grid’s point that there was sufficient capacity but stressed Heathrow's challenge in adjusting to use that power in time. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Passenger hopes Heathrow learns from airport closure disrupt

Akhil Vyas, a passenger caught up in Friday’s Heathrow Airport closure, recalled the moment he learned his flight to Dubai for a family holiday was cancelled. He said that he hopes that Heathrow will learn from the incident and create a contingency plan to prevent future disruptions. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Transport Secretary: Heathrow fire an 'unprecedented' crisis

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander called the Heathrow substation fire an "unprecedented event of very significant magnitude" after it halted flights for 18 hours. She praised firefighters and staff for their response, noting backup generators kept critical systems running but couldn’t power the entire airport. The government and Heathrow have launched investigations into resilience planning and infrastructure lessons. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn