Heathrow Airport is believed to have had enough power to avoid completely shutting down on Friday as a substation fire blazed two miles away.
National Grid chief John Pettigrew has since said that two other substations were fully functional and could have provided an adequate amount of power to keep the airport open.
The revelation has followed a weekend where officials and politicians scrambled to pinpoint blame for the monumental shutdown of Europe’s largest airport – leading to around affected 200,000 individuals as more than 1,300 flights were cancelled.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband has also since flagged his concern with the UK’s national resilience as well as its security.
More than 200,000 people were stranded on Friday as Europe’s busiest airport shut down
PA
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said that the unprecedented shutdown “was not created at Heathrow Airport”.
He added: “It was created outside the airport and we had to deal with the consequences.”
However, Pettigrew told the Financial Times: “There was no lack of capacity from the substations.
“Each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow.”
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