Heathrow boss should never have had phone on silent, says Virgin Atlantic chief

Yahoo

2 days ago

The chief executive of Virgin Atlantic has hit out at the boss of Heathrow for muting his phone while he slept as a fire broke out at the airport, leading to thousands of delayed and cancelled flights.
Shai Weiss said as the head of an airline he would 'never' put his phone on silent because the job required round the clock attention.
Last week an internal report into the incident found Thomas Woldbye, who was paid £3.2m last year, was uncontactable for the first seven hours of the airport's shutdown because his phone had been switched to silent mode before he went to sleep.
Speaking at an airline industry event, Mr Weiss said: 'The last time I put my phone on silent when running an airline was – never. I think all of my colleagues would share that observation.
'This is a 24/7 job and safety and security are the number one priority.'
Credit: X/ @Zain_018
Mr Woldbye also came under fire from Sir Tim Clark, the Emirates Airline chief, who said that Heathrow had been 'caught short' by the outage that created such turmoil on March 31.
He said: 'They were floundering around trying to think what had actually happened.
'It ranged from sabotage by a foreign actor to a meltdown at a substation through to mice running around and doing all sorts.
'Nobody really had any idea. That was a bit of a shock. If they haven't learned from that they never will.'
Sir Tim said it had come as a shock to him that Heathrow had no supplementary power supply that would kick in when the outage hit.
He said Emirates employees 'have eyes on every single aspect of our operation 24/7.
'We've learnt from our mistakes. We never close our eyes. If we did we'd be in trouble. Insurrection, coup, fire or whatever it may be. It happens all the time.'
Willie Walsh, chief executive of the International Air Transport Association, said the shutdown of Heathrow had undermined Labour's bid to restore Britain's status as a major economic force.
He said: 'The fact remains that a single point of failure brought the country's global connectivity to a halt. A government that promotes 'a Britain back on the world stage' should understand how unacceptable such a vulnerability is.
'It cannot be 'Britain's back, provided there's power.''
Mr Weiss said he expects Heathrow to begin compensating airlines for the cost of the outage now that an inquiry commissioned by the airport, and led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, has published its findings.
He said that the disruption 'cost a lot of money' and that Virgin and other airlines had been 'very clear' with Heathrow management about their expectations regarding compensation.
Mr Weiss added: 'We have put in a request and we expect them to do the right thing. We agreed with them to hear some responses from the Kelly report and others, which have recently been published. But once the dust settles, our bill is coming.'
Mr Weiss previously said that had he been in Mr Woldbye's position he would have 'rushed to the airport at that moment. All CEOs are geared for that.'
It was initially reported that Mr Woldbye went to bed at around 12.30am having been made aware of the fire, leaving the decision to close the airport to his deputy, Javier Echave.
The Kelly report said that was not the case and that he had retired to bed unaware of the situation and 'was not involved' in the decision to shut down for 24 hours.
Alerts known as F24 alarms were sent to Mr Woldbye's mobile at 00:21 and 01:52 to activate emergency procedures and Mr Echave tried to call him several times.
The report said: 'Mr Woldbye first became aware of the incident at approximately 06:45 on March 21, and received a debrief from Mr Echave.'
A Heathrow spokesman said: 'The Kelly review, as well as independent legal counsel assisting the panel, had access to all Heathrow decision-makers and company papers and published a well-documented and robust report containing a number of findings and recommendations.
'The review concluded that while some detailed elements of our response could be sharpened, the overall approach to prioritise safety was the right one and the right decisions were taken on the day. We have accepted all the recommendations in full.'
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.