“I’m proud of what the people did to get us out of the situation,” Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC on Saturday. Woldbye stressed that the fire took place “outside the airport, and we had to deal with the consequences.”
“I don’t know an airport that has back-up supply that can switch on in minutes to the magnitude of what we experienced yesterday. The same would happen in other airports,” he said.
Woldbye said he hopes the U.K. investigation will “help strengthen the airport’s future resilience,” adding in a statement that the airport is “committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation.”
British Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said “it’s imperative we identify how this power failure happened and learn from this to ensure a vital piece of national infrastructure remains strong.”
Europe’s busiest airport was forced to a standstill on Friday following a fire that broke out the evening prior at a nearby electric station, causing a power outage at Heathrow. The airport was returning to normal operation on Saturday, but passengers continued to face delays and cancellations, according to media reports.
More than 1,000 flights were cancelled due to the airport’s shutdown, which affected tens of thousands of travellers in one of the largest disruptions to air travel in recent years.