Heathrow boss to be questioned by MPs over airport’s closure

Heathrow’s boss will be questioned by MPs on Wednesday about the airport’s closure for most of a day last month. CE Thomas Woldbye will give evidence to the Transport Select Committee as part of its investigation into the shutdown on March 21, which disrupted more than 270,000 air passenger journeys. The west London airport was closed to all flights on that day until about 6pm, after a power outage caused by a fire at a nearby electricity substation which started late the previous night. The committee will examine whether the situation could have been handled differently and what lessons can be learned. Woldbye will be asked why the airport was closed for so long, and why it appears to have a single point of failure. He will be asked whether alternative power sources could have been used earlier, after National Grid said two other substations could have powered the airport. He could also be asked about reports that he went back to bed after the power outage began. The committee will also question whether this type of incident was deemed so unlikely to happen that investing in additional resilience was thought unnecessary.<br/>