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Heathrow’s chief executive could not be reached to tell him about the airport’s closure after a power outage because his phone was on silent, an inquiry has revealed.
Thomas Woldbye was asleep when chief operating officer Javier Echave decided to suspend operations at 1.15am on 21 March after a fire at a substation in west London affected the supply of electricity to the site, it has emerged.
The airport closed for around 16 hours, cancelling about 1,300 flights and causing travel chaos for nearly 300,000 passengers.
Heathrow commissioned an inquiry into what happened, led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member on the airport’s board.
The inquiry’s report, published on Wednesday, found that Mr Woldbye “was not involved” in the decision to suspend operations as he was unaware of several attempts to reach him due to his phone being on silent mode until 6.45am on 21 March.
“Although his phone was on his bedside table, Mr Woldbye reported that it did not alert him to the F24 alarms [to activate emergency procedures] or to Mr Echave’s other calls because the phone had gone into a silent mode, without him being aware it had done so and he was asleep at the time,” the report stated.
Mr Woldbye expressed “his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident”, according to the review.
The inquiry recommended that Heathrow should consider having a “second means of contact” to notify key individuals about critical incidents.
However, it also found that the decision to suspend operations was “correctly made” as it was “essential to protect the safety and…
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