Heathrow Airport is shut until Friday night

[Ozgirl76]

And my husband is due to fly home to Australia on Friday evening. I predict chaos.
Airport is saying that people should not travel to Heathrow and should contact their airlines.

But the tube doesn't go out as far as Cardiff !

What an absolute nightmare for everyone travelling but I have to admit to seeing a little silver lining.

I live directly under the flightpath and the dog walk today was glorious.
Birds chirping and clear blue skies.
Felt like I was in the middle of the countryside.

Must be costly. If Heathrow is supplied by another substation then what's causing the delay in getting the power back?

I have done exactly that! Do you remember the drones saga at Gatwick a few years back, it was Dec 2018. I was flying back from somewhere, 7 hour flight and got told we could not land at Gatwick and they were diverting us. We ended up in Shannon. I actually know Shannon really well because I go there a lot, an all I can say is there is not a lot to do there! Thankfully I managed to get a flight to Heathrow for the evening so spent about 14 hours there. It was a bit rough as I was coming down with Flu at the time.. was never so glad to get home after that.

I suppose Friday is as good a day as any.

Clearly it is not or not enough of the airport to keep it operational.

Me neither

We have our own home grown terrorist cells that are not russian you know.

But that will slow down the Russian invasion too...swings and roundabouts.

In WWll road signs were removed to confuse invaders now we just let the roads and other infrastructure fall in to disrepair to make it more difficult for them. Round here we assume the roads are left in such a state so that only 4x4 drivers can use them. Survival of the richest.

They are! A relative is a commercial pilot though and had to land with failed instruments and it was incredibly stressful - not something they’d put them through unecesarily.

Husband said would be a good Bruce Willis Die Hard sequel.

Good point. A russian tank would never get through the potholes round here! I feel well protected now- thank you!

If it is the Russians, they carry out these acts of sabotage because they can! They hate Britain for whatever reason, and they just like to keep us on our toes! I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a lot more to this than meets the eye, but we’ll probably never know with any certainty!

They got power back to over 60,000 affected homes by 6am, less than 5,000 were still without power. So I assume they have got power back at the airport. The fact they’ve given an end time to all this and the airport is scheduled to reopen at that point suggests they’re mopping up all the mess from the night, dealing with all the knock on. With so many planes and crew displaced, they wouldn’t handle thousands of people turning up today expecting to get on flights. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s still a problem with the power.

Will they then take the bus on Eurostar or a ferry I wonder.

I had no idea that our power supplies were so weak until I saw this article, it reminded me of the lack of investment in Thames Valley water.

https://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/25014801.forensic-unit-wont-get-full-electricity-supply-2037/

The thought had crossed my mind...chances are the terrorists would get thwarted by the permanent traffic jam on the M25 round there, it's nice that our government takes such measures to keep us safe.

it's shut until someone says it isnt. then they have to get the staff back in and switch everything back on. thats everything from flight control to runway lights to coffee machines. Your aircraft may well be in Canada or Paris so those have to be flown in. No doubt there were passengers at the airport when it closed so they will have to be moved first as their bags will be in holds of aircraft or in the baggage system

It will take 10 years to get spades in the ground for the new runway according to Michael O’Leary Ryan air CEO. That’s what you call slow growth investment!
what a nightmare the UK has turned into….best slope off to the prepping tin hat threads.

even at the height of the Cold War we weren't at war

Someone ought to tell counter terrorism that lots of people on mumsnet think this is a stupid overreaction.. 🤣🤣

Scotland Yard counter-terrorism is investigating, but it's just 'routine' and a 'precaution'.

I think people forget Heathrow is privately owned and a business. yes it’s part of our infrastructure, but, it’s privately owned. So it’s up to them what they deem profitable investment rather than a necessity for the service they provide to Great Britain.

I think people are vastly underestimating how much energy and airport uses.

I worked in a hospital with generators, if we were switched over we would halt certain things eg elective procedures because of the unreliable energy supply. We would have reduced power but we're able to keep people alive, meds refrigerated etc, get people out of lifts

I imagine the same with Heathrow, they could probably support reduced function enough to get the planes that were landing down safely but couldn't operate fully enough not to cause wide spread disruption

best slope off to the prepping tin hat threads

Sorry, what?

Are you the thread police or something?