The Heathrow fire incident has become the subject of controversy, with UK Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander saying she would ‘struggle to sleep’ if she was in charge of the crisis. It has also emerged that Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye went to bed at 12:30 am during the crisis while Chief Operating Officer Javier Echave ran the show.
The fire that started at an electricity substation in Hayes on Friday affected more than 1,000 flights and affected more than 200,000 passengers globally after it made them postpone their trips. Woldbye’s defence of the decision to rest was that he had to be well-rested to make crucial decisions about when to reopen. Woldbye was back at work early the next morning and was back in his office by 9am.
Senior BA and Virgin Atlantic executives, it was reported, worked all night as flights were either diverted or cancelled. It only got worse when National Grid said there was enough power to keep Heathrow running when airport officials said the fire caused an unprecedented system shutdown that required a complete system reboot.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband has ordered a probe into the power failure, while former Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly will look into Heathrow’s crisis management planning. Heathrow has now returned to normal operations and more than 1,300 flights have been scheduled for Monday.
The airport has also offered the apology for the inconvenience and has stated that its main concern is to provide passengers with trouble-free journey. However, the problem of the management action in the crisis environment has once again risen, and this time the authors are concerned about whether Heathrow is ready for similar challenges in the future.
