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Heathrow boss criticized for his resilience after lawmakers investigate shutdown

Heathrow's boss was criticized for a 18-hour airport shutdown last month. An airline representative had said that he raised concerns days earlier about the hub’s resilience, and lawmakers were scrutinising the embarrassing incident.

The closure of the airport on March 21 was caused by a fire at a nearby substation, raising concerns about the resilience and safety of the national infrastructure. About 300,000 passengers were left stranded by the incident and airlines lost millions of pounds.

In an effort to learn from the past, members of Parliament quizzed Heathrow's chief executive, National Grid representatives, SSE, and airline representatives on Wednesday.

Nigel Wicking said that he expressed his concern to the Heathrow Airline Operators' Committee, which represents 90 airlines at the Heathrow hub, on March 15, 2015.

Wicking stated that he had warned Heathrow about his concerns regarding the substations. Wicking's concern was about resilience.

Two days prior to the fire, he raised concerns after one of Heathrow’s runways was left without lights for a brief period of time due to theft of cable.

Thomas Woldbye said that safety was Heathrow's main concern. Heathrow's CEO, Thomas Woldbye, said that safety was the main concern.

Wicking stated that the airport should and could have begun flights earlier.

He said: "I don't hear that there wasn't enough power to get into Heathrow." "I heard that it was taking time to get the power where it needed it to be at Heathrow." "10 hours was too long for me."

Woldbye stated that the contracts between airports and power suppliers included resilience. He said that building full resilience would cost a lot of money, around 1 billion pounds.

(source: Reuters)