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.

Just bc one incident was supposedly proven not to be the Russians doesn't mean they're not actively pulling shit like this does it?

I doubt they take kindly to our support of Ukraine, our sending £££ to them for munitions and Kier "Tool" Starmers comments against them. Do you really think they'll sit back and do nothing?

I hope you are right and it's not Russia, and that someone was just having a sly ciggy in the control chamber and didn't extinguish it properly - bc the alternative is a bit scary.

@SnoozingFox ah that clears up something I was very puzzled about earlier! I could not understand why the operations of an elite military unit like the SAS were being publicised on Sky News, it seemed very strange! How dim of them, did they really think they were privy to this information?

At last some common sense. The doom mongers must be loving this, it is the next drama post covid and col crisis.😀
Me? I'm off to buy a ton of pasta and 6000 loo rolls.

@AzureshoresI agree on KS but not sure about this one. Either way

Looking at the posts here it is much easier to believe in incompetence and poor infrastructure management as the key causes of this incident rather than Russian sabotage. The Yookay can be relied on to fuck up things on its own.
Airports like hospitals need back up power supplies, Heathrow's was apparently in the same vicinity as the substation that caught fire. That is special genius isnt it? Major airports all over the world are owned by the cities they are located in (US) or by governments - check out who owns all the busiest airports of the world. Schipol, Handa, Atlanta, Dubai, CDG et all. Yookay airports have been basically sold off to international investors. It is okay to have commercial entities run airports but no other country is the world is so stupid as to sell off their airports altogether. Slow Clap for the UK.

I am not Russian btw, but from Singapore and my government owns more of Heathrow (11%) than your government does (zero percent).

@snowmichael

As you've probably seen, they did
The tower has its own generator, but the lights and radar are all taken down

Not sure that’s correct TBH..certainly at airports such at Heathrow that are equipped to support approaches in very low visibility there’s a regulatory requirement for quite a few of the airfield functions (e.g. some runway lighting, the Instrument Landing system, plus some other equipment, not sure about radar ) to have fast acting, fast switching back up power to cater for “the mains” going whilst an aircraft is on an approach.

As I understand it, happy to be corrected, ATC won’t run/operate on the back up for an extended period, it’s more a case of using it to get aircraft that are on approach on to the ground and facilitate the diversion of those other aircraft inbound who can do so.

I don't know if it is Russia but have people forgotten that Russia has paid criminals to commit arson attacks across Europe in recent years? They have also tried to get explosive packages onto planes. This is a country that downs planes, defenestrates people and unleashes lethal nerve agents in picturesque tourist towns. We're not exactly talking tin-foil territory here.

And we subsidise them by providing infrastructure. And jet fuel isn't taxed and there is no VAT on it either.

So your government gets the dividend. We get to pay for it.

its an electrical fire in a substation that provides power to a huge complex. there are no batteries or back up generators that can do that.heathrow is a small town. the airport wont be up running tonight as if by magic. someone has to reconnect the power from somewhere and the original site has to made safe. No aircraft are taking off/landing until the airport is deemed safe and functional. Thats everything aircraft related and groundside (baggage elevators, battery carts for moving passengers, toilets, a/c, check in computers and all safety systems). the fuel gets to Heathrow via a pipeline from a refinery. Not lots of road tankers bringing fuel in. is it inconvenient yes. But it's a single (busy) airport. the rest of the UK/Europe/World are all flying. if it was Manchester there wouldnt be this much attention

Friends of mine are air traffic controllers and it’s manic.

Ask yourself why. Better yet ask your powers that be why. That will be better use of your time than conspiracy mongering about the Russians. I hold no brief for bloody fucking Russia but it pains me to see the stupidity on display here.

But is UK PLC capable of owning and running it? Manchester is apparently owned partly/mostly by the local authority and it's an absolute shit show of incompetence and regularly gets low satisfaction ratings.

Shareholders don't run companies.

Your knowledge is better than mine 🙂
I just remember the discussion we had about it that day, he felt so uneasy and only realised that it was the absence of the aircraft noise that he was so used to hearing. I'd been listening in disbelief with my colleagues to news reports as it unfolded. You're right, the initial response was over far more quickly here than there.
It must have been disconcerting to be in the air that day after hearing the news.

Love the idea that Heathrow coild be complelty powered by a back up battery.

Why not?

That's a devastating opinion of your own capacity and capability. Very poor countries manage to own and operate their international airports.

Sounds like power is starting to come back on

Exactly, why not? why not make use of the WiFi on the plane. If you’re lucky, you can get it for free.

I can chip in with a powerbank.

I’ve got a couple of spare USB cables too.

Sorry, but the diversion from the thread,

But I'm impressed, I'd love to have such a needed and exclusive skill set. Can you say any more about it?

hopefully, as you're going for a year, a few days won't make too much difference🤞🏼🤞🏼

I hope you really enjoy it and feel you've made a big difference at the end of your year!!

My battery pack may be of use - after all, it gives my phone about 6 hours extra of charge!

Electrical engineer of 20+ years experience here, oil cooled transformers do, occasionally catch fire, and burn like crazy when they do.

Unless they can point towards it being deliberately set its likely just an overheating fire.

The oil has a high ignition temperature, and is in a 6mm thick steel tank, ignition usually is caused by a failed winding arcing out in the air gap at the top of the tank igniting the oil vapour.

Your wouldn't be able to get this going with a box of matches and a newspaper - I would think it very unlikely to be anything other than a regular transformer fire, there are many examples on you tube.