LONDON: Britain’s Heathrow defended its decision to shut down operations at Europe’s busiest airport last Friday as the blame game intensified over an 18-hour closure which cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers.
As questions mounted over how such a critical part of Britain’s infrastructure could fail and whether all Heathrow’s four terminals needed to shut, both National Grid and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event.
But the airport was forced to defend its closure after the boss of National Grid told the Financial Times that the electricity transmission network remained capable of providing power to the airport throughout the crisis.
Heathrow said the fire at a nearby substation late on Thursday interrupted its operations, forcing it to shut while it reconfigured systems and switched to power from an alternative substation.
“Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted,” a Heathrow spokesperson said.
“Given Heathrow’s size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge.”
John Pettigrew, the CEO of National Grid, said there were two other substations able to provide power to Heathrow, showing that the grid was resilient.
“Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power,” he told the FT.
While airlines such as British Airways, the worse affected, add up the bill for the closure, the government and Heathrow have both commissioned reviews into what happened.
“It’s really important that we do learn the lessons from this, and that’s why I think those two reviews...are going to be really critical,” Transport Minister Heidi Alexander told Sky News on Monday.
Asked on LBC Radio about whether she had confidence in Heathrow’s CEO Thomas Woldbye, Alexander said she wanted to see the results of the reviews.
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UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game
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UK’s Heathrow defends decision to shut airport amid blame game
- Airport’s 18-hour closure cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers
- Both National Grid and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event
Clintons call for their Epstein testimony to be public
WASHINGTON: Former US president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary are calling for their congressional testimony on ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to be held publicly, to prevent Republicans from politicizing the issue.
Both Clintons had been ordered to give closed-door depositions before the House Oversight Committee, which is probing the deceased financier’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.
Democrats say the probe is being weaponized to attack political opponents of President Donald Trump — himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.
House Republicans had previously threatened a contempt vote if the Democratic power couple did not show up to testify, which they have since agreed to do.
But holding the deposition behind closed doors, Bill Clinton said Friday, would be akin to being tried at a “kangaroo court.”
“Let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing,” the former Democratic president said on X.
Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, said the couple had already told the Republican-led Oversight Committee “what we know.”
“If you want this fight...let’s have it in public,” she said Thursday.
The Justice Department last week released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files — more than three million documents, photos and videos related to its investigation into Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
Bill Clinton features regularly in the files, but no evidence has come to light implicating either Clinton in criminal activity.
The former president has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited Epstein’s private island.
Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump for president in 2016, said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island.
Both Clintons had been ordered to give closed-door depositions before the House Oversight Committee, which is probing the deceased financier’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.
Democrats say the probe is being weaponized to attack political opponents of President Donald Trump — himself a longtime Epstein associate who has not been called to testify — rather than to conduct legitimate oversight.
House Republicans had previously threatened a contempt vote if the Democratic power couple did not show up to testify, which they have since agreed to do.
But holding the deposition behind closed doors, Bill Clinton said Friday, would be akin to being tried at a “kangaroo court.”
“Let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing,” the former Democratic president said on X.
Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state, said the couple had already told the Republican-led Oversight Committee “what we know.”
“If you want this fight...let’s have it in public,” she said Thursday.
The Justice Department last week released the latest cache of so-called Epstein files — more than three million documents, photos and videos related to its investigation into Epstein, who died from what was determined to be suicide while in custody in 2019.
Bill Clinton features regularly in the files, but no evidence has come to light implicating either Clinton in criminal activity.
The former president has acknowledged flying on Epstein’s plane in the early 2000s for Clinton Foundation-related humanitarian work, but said he never visited Epstein’s private island.
Hillary Clinton, who ran against Trump for president in 2016, said she had no meaningful interactions with Epstein, never flew on his plane and never visited his island.
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