How did a single explosion lead to the shutdown of Europe’s busiest airport?

How did a single explosion lead to the shutdown of Europe's busiest airport?

An explosion at an electrical substation in west London caused Heathrow Airport to lose power, resulting in chaos and leaving thousands of travelers stranded worldwide.

The incident destroyed a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil, which was essential for power supply.

However, the most alarming revelation was that Heathrow lacked a backup plan to maintain operations.

Although the airport draws power from three different substations, the failure of one necessitated that officials manually restart and test thousands of systems—such as fueling, boarding bridges, and elevators—before normal operations could resume.

The emergency backup proved insufficient. The intricate nature of modern aviation infrastructure meant that even a minor outage could paralyze the entire airport.

Willie Walsh, the IATA chief, stated, "This raises significant concerns. How can critical global infrastructure depend on a single point of failure?"

Authorities are now facing scrutiny to clarify how a fire in Hayes escalated into an international transportation crisis.

Source: WSJ