Heathrow’s closure feeds questions about the elasticity of infrastructure in the United Kingdom

Firefighters in Hayes, west of London, received a call for a smoke investigation that comes out of the North Hyde Power station in the area around 11:20 pm on Thursday, and ran to the site, which is less than two miles from Heathrow Airport.

Within hours, it was one of the most busy airports in the world Closed to all air trafficThe aircraft from New Delhi and Los Angeles were back, and the accusations began.

“How is it a very important matter Infrastructure Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association, doubled airline, and a former British Airways executive, who was a long-term critic of the airport, asked, “If this was the case-as it seems that there was a clear failure in planning, as there was a clear failure in planning, as there was a clear malfunction in planning, as there was a clear failure in planning, as there was a clear failure in planning, where there was a clear failure in planning, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, where there was a clear failure, In planning. “

The question of how fire at one sub -station can bring one of the largest airports in the world around Whitehall.

Although the reason for the ignition is unknown, the fire of fire fed by 25,000 liters of cooling oil inside the sub -adapter appears to be sufficient to damage the backups on the site.

This was enough for the knockout the entire sub -station that provides electricity to stations 2 and 4 in Heathrow In addition to lighting on the runways, which led to this chaos at the airport, I decided to close completely.

The diesel backup generators have worked from Heathrow as planned. But these are present to ensure that they can do basics like landing planes and evacuating passengers, rather than operating a full process.

“It is not possible to get backup copies of all the energy we need to operate our work safely,” said Heathrow.

Shortly before 2 pm, engineers in the National Network and Scottish and Southern Electricity networks said that they had reshaped the sub -station so that they were able to provide energy to Heathrow again.

But it took several hours to receive the airport that its power source was reliable, and that its electronics had returned safely online. By 4 pm, the airport announced plans to reopen it, and the first flights are scheduled to take off from around 7 pm.

But the pressure grows on Heathrow to explain a reason that allowed himself to be exposed to one degree of failure.

“It is a great invitation to wake up about the lack of flexibility in all of our critical infrastructure and its interdependence.”

“Just as the United Kingdom and Europe had an enormous awakening call to defense, it is blind to blindly that the energy infrastructure is the number one. You need more flexibility in the energy system if you face a serious security threat.”

Thomas and Oldby, CEO of Heathrow, said that the airport’s emergency planning had succeeded.

He said that the airport can run on power from two of the three sub -stations it takes, but its electronic systems are deported to the restructured power source “takes time.”

“We have lost a large part of our power source … this has been a big accident in the intensity. We have lost the force equal to a medium -sized city and that our backup systems are working as it should, but they are not the size of the management of an entire airport,” Waldby said.

Heathrow Airport, owned by the private sector by a consortium of investors, was burdened by more than 19 billion pounds of debt, and has long been faced with airline airlines on its financial resources and whether it has been efficiently invested in its infrastructure.

Experts added that the fire confirms the need for the government to honor the critical infrastructure in the United Kingdom, which is more owned by private ownership than any other country around the world. Electricity, gas, communications and water networks in the United Kingdom, as well as the ports and airports are all in private hands.

“Companies tend to spend on maintenance, renovations and capacity expansion, but for basic infrastructure, there must be a significant investment in flexibility and emergency so that they can deal with significant disturbances for one time,” said Nobel Francis, Director of Economics at the Building Products Association.

The accident comes at a time when the UK is more appointed to electricity networks, as it tries to move towards electric cars and renewable powers, as part of the shift from fossil fuels. A huge new capacity is needed to connect new wind farms and solar energy farms to homes and companies.

Electricity networks around West London have been the subject of intense scrutiny over recent years, as the capacity has failed to keep pace with the demand. House builders are warned of the prolonged delay of projects, as energy -thirsty data centers were prepared near optical cable lines.

“There are other assets of the national infrastructure that this incident is one time and any part of the government is responsible for organizational supervision, even if it is a private ownership.”

Passengers who are late around the world enjoy a more urgent question: When will they enter into the air? “We are stuck here without any alternative but to eat at the hotel,” said Sarah Jones, the retired who was traveling to Singapore with her husband at Sofitel Hotel near Heathrow. “Breakfast costs 66 pounds for two people … and Prices are ongoing Up we are talking. ”

Additional reports by Akila Quinho in Heathrow