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Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The sleeping Heathrow boss proves we're a nation led by donkeys
It was one of the more astonishing admissions of the week: 'Sorry lads, my phone was on silent.' Or, as the Kelly Review, published on Wednesday, put it: ' Mr Woldbye expressed to us his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident.' The apology nestles in a 75-page report authored by Ruth Kelly, the former transport secretary, who examined the circumstances relating to the closure of Heathrow Airport on March 21. It's an impressively speedy job, with most inquiries of this nature usually waiting for the protagonists to die – or, at best, until their memories have long faded and the events have been massaged into a Netflix documentary – to be concluded. Yet here is a report published while the senior folk of one of the largest and busiest airports in Europe are still firmly in post. And clinging on for dear life – especially the chief executive, Thomas Woldbye. Indeed he has been vexed at the idea that he acted in any way other than exemplary over the 18-hour shutdown of Heathrow that resulted in the cancellation of 1,300 flights and affected some 270,000 passengers. The day after the shutdown, the Danish businessman even told Emma Barnett on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that, in relation to the actions and decisions of Heathrow and related parties, he was 'proud of the entire ecosystem'. Pride being the most plausible emotion for him to express because, when the decision was taken to press the Heathrow off-button, Woldbye was asleep. Which for a Dane strikes me as a peculiarly British reaction, albeit with firm roots in the comedy of Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army or Blackadder 's General Melchett. Our hero, Woldbye, as you can read on page 36 of the report (section 14, subsection 3), 'first became aware of the incident at approximately 06:45 on 21 March, and received a debrief from Mr Echave [Heathrow's chief operating officer]'. 'Fine work, man,' he might have said. 'Now, what's going on?' And, famously, it was not for want of trying to get hold of Woldbye during the night. In fact, what is known in the trade as the most 'critical event communication platform that provides information and sends alerts through all available communication channels', an F24 alarm was issued at 00.21. This is the technical equivalent of a cold bucket of water being thrown in your face, a gong being struck by your ear, a jumping up and down on Daddy at dawn. There was another F24 sent at 01.52, this one activating Gold (harder slaps around the chops, cries of 'wake up, you idiot!') and Echave, also we learn, 'attempted to call Mr Woldbye several times during the early hours'. Except Woldbye's mobile, albeit on his bedside table, was on silent. Or, as the report states, 'the phone had gone into a silent mode, without him being aware it had done so'. That's right, the man in charge of Heathrow – an airport that uses the most sophisticated technology available to run and protect a place with planes departing and landing every 45 seconds – has a phone that, completely of its own accord, jumps into 'do not disturb' mode. Perhaps the man whose most recent annual take-home pay was £3.2 million needs a second phone. Or how about an old-school landline with a trilling bell on it? We Brits are, quite clearly, lions led by donkeys. Incompetence seems key to the skill set in running either a large company or indeed government. There are, for example, the civil servants of the Department for Business and Trade who, in the face of colossal public pressure and moral finger-wagging, continue to resist fully compensating the likes of Sir Alan Bates for the Horizon IT system scandal. Last weekend he revealed that he had been offered a 'take it or leave it' offer of 49.2 per cent of his original claim. The compensation scheme, Sir Alan said, had become 'quasi-kangaroo courts in which the Department for Business and Trade sits in judgement of the claims and alters the goal posts as and when it chooses'. Or, consider the major water companies presiding over the effluent that pollutes our rivers. Earlier this month, Chris Weston, the CEO of Thames Water – Britain's biggest water company; a firm with massive debts, outdated infrastructure and more leaks and spills than the Titanic – admitted that senior managers had been in line for substantial bonuses courtesy of a privately financed £3 billion rescue-plan loan. Following pressure from Environment Secretary Steve Reed, Weston's spokesperson then announced that payments had been 'paused'. Yet, as The Guardian reported, Thames Water 'declined to answer questions about whether any of the retention package has already been paid'. High Court judge Mr Justice Leech, in relation to an £800 million cost to be spent on interest and advisers for the debt deal, said: 'Customers and residents who are struggling with their bills will be horrified at these costs and mystified how the Thames Water Group has been able to fund them or why it has agreed to do so.' Ponder, too, on those who run Royal Mail, increasing prices while presiding over terminal decline of their services, and the pen-pushing ninnies of our councils conjuring up safety costs that are wrecking traditional country street fairs and festivals. Indeed, just look to the politicians who run our country. We have a Chancellor in Rachel Reeves who claims to support hospitality while actually savaging it with increases in National Insurance Contributions for employers, and a Secretary of State for Education gleefully manifesting over a VAT policy that is closing down private schools.
The National
5 days ago
- Business
- The National
Heathrow chief's phone on silent mode as fire caused airport to close, inquiry finds
Attempts to tell Heathrow airport's sleeping chief executive that the airport had been closed because of a power outage failed because his bedside phone was on silent, an inquiry has found. Thomas Woldbye was in bed as senior Heathrow staff decided to suspend operations because of a fire at a nearby electrical substation. No flights operated at the west London airport until about 6pm on March 21 because of the blaze which started late the previous night. More than 270,000 air passenger journeys were disrupted by the incident. Heathrow commissioned an inquiry into what happened, led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of the airport's board. The Kelly Review found that Mr Woldbye 'was not involved' in the decision taken by the airport's chief operating officer Javier Echave at 1.15am on March 21 to suspend operations until 11.59pm. Mr Woldbye's mobile was 'on his bedside table' but he was unaware of multiple attempts to alert him to the situation as the device was on silent mode, the Kelly Review said. Alerts known as F24 alarms were sent to Mr Woldbye's mobile at 12.21am and 1.52am to activate emergency procedures, and Mr Echave tried to call him several times. The report stated: 'Although his phone was on his bedside table, Mr Woldbye reported that it did not alert him to the F24 alarms 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.' It added: 'Mr Woldbye first became aware of the incident at approximately 6.45am on March 21, and received a debrief from Mr Echave.' Mr Woldbye expressed 'his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident', the review said. The review recommended that Heathrow considers having a 'second means of contact' to notify key individuals about critical incidents. It concluded that the decision to suspend operations after the power outage was 'correctly made' as this was 'essential to protect the safety and security of people, as well as the integrity of the airport and the UK border'. The report stated that on March 21, Heathrow began accepting limited flight arrivals from 4pm and departures from 8pm, before fully reopening on March 22. The inquiry found there 'may have been opportunities to open parts of the airport slightly sooner' on March 21 but this 'likely would have been only by a maximum of a couple of hours or so'. Ms Kelly said: 'The evidence confirms that Heathrow made the right decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances. 'Whilst the disruption was significant, alternative choices on the day would not have materially changed the outcome. 'The airport had contingency plans in place, and the report highlights that further planned investment in energy resilience will be key to reducing the impact of any similar events in the future.' Mr Woldbye said: "Heathrow exists to serve our passengers and airlines, which made the decision to close the airport in March because of the North Hyde substation fire tough, but necessary. 'We hope that all our stakeholders understand this was done to protect the safety of passengers and colleagues. 'We're truly sorry for the disrupted journeys, and we understand the impact this had on so many of our customers.' A spokesperson for the Heathrow Reimagined campaign, whose supporters include British Airways' owner International Airlines Group and Virgin Atlantic, said: 'Lessons must be learnt from the closure of Heathrow during March's power outage, but the internal Kelly Review allows Heathrow to set and judge by its own standards. 'It fails to properly tackle the poor contingency planning and years of inefficient spending that left Heathrow vulnerable.' The National Energy System Operator (Neso), which is also investigating what happened, published an interim report earlier this month which stated the cause of the fire remains unknown. It is expected to publish its full report by the end of June.
Sky News
5 days ago
- Business
- Sky News
Heathrow chief's phone was on silent as power cut fire unfolded, inquiry reveals
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. 3:39 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 security of people, as well as the integrity of the airport and the UK border". Ms Kelly said: "The evidence confirms that Heathrow made the right decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances. "Whilst the disruption was significant, alternative choices on the day would not have materially changed the outcome. "The airport had contingency plans in place, and the report highlights that further planned investment in energy resilience will be key to reducing the impact of any similar events in the future." But Nigel Wicking, the chief executive of Heathrow Airline Operators' Committee (AOC), described the report as "back patting" because it did not "recognise the significant cost impact" borne by airlines. 0:49 He told MPs on the Transport Select Committee he had warned Heathrow bosses the power supply was vulnerable less than a week before the outage. Heathrow AOC, which has more than 90 members including Virgin Atlantic and British Airways, criticised the handling of the closure, saying flights could have taken off earlier on Friday and that communication was "appalling". The inquiry found there "may have been opportunities to open parts of the airport slightly sooner" on 21 March but this "likely would have been only by a maximum of a couple of hours or so". It started accepting limited flight arrivals from 4pm and departures from 8pm that day. Mr Wicking told Sky News' business and economics reporter Sarah Taaffe-Maguire on Wednesday that the review did not help to better understand whether the airport had the resources it needed. Instead, he said he was looking to the full National Energy System Operator report, expected to be released by the end of June. A spokesperson for the Heathrow Reimagined campaign group, whose supporters include British Airways's owner International Airlines Group and Virgin Atlantic, said: "Lessons must be learnt from the closure of Heathrow during March's power outage, but the internal Kelly Review allows Heathrow to set and judge by its own standards. "It fails to properly tackle the poor contingency planning and years of inefficient spending that left Heathrow vulnerable."
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Heathrow boss slept through airport blackout because phone was on silent
The boss of Heathrow slept through the first seven hours of the airport's shutdown because his phone was switched to silent mode, an internal review has found. Fellow executives initially could not contact Thomas Woldbye following a substation fire on March 21, which knocked out power to the airport and left passengers stranded after thousands of flights were grounded. Mr Woldbye, who was paid £3.2m last year, had placed his phone on his bedside table before going to sleep but the device had 'gone into silent mode, without him being aware', leaving him uncontactable as the crisis erupted. It meant that although the power went out at Heathrow at about 11.55pm, the chief executive was not aware it had happened until about 6.45am the next morning, a review by former transport secretary and Heathrow board member Ruth Kelly found. News reports covering the chaos had been live for several hours before Mr Woldbye woke up. In his stead, Javier Echave, the airport's operating chief – who had tried to call Mr Woldbye repeatedly by phone – was left to chair crisis meetings and gave the order to close the airport to all traffic for the rest of the day. Earlier reports had suggested that Mr Woldbye had elected to go to bed after initially learning of the power cut but the review found this was 'not correct'. Ms Kelly's report added: 'Mr Woldbye expressed to us his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident. 'The review committee recommends that Heathrow consider enhancements that can be made to the notification process of a critical incident, including options for notifying key individuals via a second means of contact for significant incidents.' It said that Heathrow had already taken steps to ensure the chief executive could be contacted via alternative means in future. In the wake of the shutdown, furious airlines criticised the decision to announce a full day's closure and said the airport should have been better prepared. Shai Weiss, the boss of Virgin Atlantic, also criticised Mr Woldbye's 'questionable' handling of the incident, adding: 'I know what I would have done. I would have rushed to the airport at that moment. All CEOs are geared for that. 'You lead from the front and then you delegate back. I believe if Thomas had the opportunity again he would act differently, but that's a question for him.' Some 200,000 passengers were left stranded around the world in March after the substation in Hayes, West London, caused Heathrow to shut down for 24 hours. The fire ripped through both the primary and redundancy systems of the power transformer, cutting off one of three main grid lines feeding into the airport, in what grid operators have described as an 'unprecedented' failure. But the crisis has also triggered criticism from airlines and experts, who questioned how Europe's biggest airport was plunged into darkness by the failure of a single electricity substation. 'No immediate fix' A preliminary report by the National Energy System Operator published earlier this month found the fire began in a 57-year-old electricity transformer before spreading to a second transformer next to it. A third, newer transformer then overloaded and cut out. In her review, Ms Kelly said the total loss of one of the three power lines serving Heathrow was regarded by the airport as a 'low likelihood event', because staff had been assured of the redundancies available at the substation run by National Grid and SSE Networks. She said Heathrow staff had responded as well as could be expected in the circumstances and managed to get power restored in a prompt and orderly manner later in the day, by reconfiguring the site's power network. However, it was known that losing one of the three power lines was enough to trigger a shutdown lasting at least eight hours. 'This is a result of the way the infrastructure at the airport has been developed over 75 years,' the review said. 'There is no immediate fix to this problem, in part because the airport is operating at full capacity with only limited operational overnight windows to carry out works to improve resilience and within a highly constrained footprint.' Heathrow had looked at alternative arrangements over the years, including a 'ring' configuration for the airport's high voltage network and a direct connection to the national transmission network. These upgrades could have potentially prevented a blackout but were part of longer-term plans for the airport's expansion, which had been repeatedly delayed over the years, the review said. On top of this, the National Grid has told Heathrow that a direct line to the national network may not be available until 2037 at the earliest. Commenting on the report on Wednesday, Heathrow chairman Lord Deighton said: ' The board would like to thank Ruth Kelly, Joan MacNaughton and Mark Brooker for their diligence in investigating Heathrow's preparedness for the fire at the North Hyde substation and how the airport subsequently handled its impact. 'The Kelly Review is thorough with clear recommendations which the management team will be taking forward. 'This was an unprecedented set of circumstances, but the learnings identified in the Kelly Review will make Heathrow more fit for the future.'
BBC News
5 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Heathrow Airport chief asleep as airport closed over outage
Attempts to tell Heathrow airport's sleeping chief executive that the airport had been closed because of a power outage failed because his bedside phone was on silent, an inquiry has Woldbye was in bed as senior Heathrow staff decided to suspend operations because of a fire at a nearby electrical flights operated at the west London airport until about 18:00 GMT on 21 March because of the blaze which started late the previous closure, which affected 270,000 journeys, was caused by "an unprecedented set of circumstances", Heathrow chairman Lord Deighton said, adding the airport's infrastructure will be made "more fit for the future". Heathrow commissioned the inquiry into what happened, led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, who is an independent member of the airport's Kelly Review found that Mr Woldbye "was not involved" in the decision taken by the airport's chief operating officer Javier Echave at 01:15 on 21 March to suspend operations until 23:59. 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 report stated: "Mr Woldbye first became aware of the incident at approximately 06:45 on 21 March, and received a debrief from Mr Echave."Mr Woldbye expressed "his deep regret at not being contactable during the night of the incident", the review review recommended that Heathrow considers having a "second means of contact" to notify key individuals about critical incidents. The review concluded that the airport had responded "efficiently and smoothly". The report found that the decision "to stop operations immediately was correctly made and essential to protect the safety and security of people" and decision-makers acted appropriately. "The evidence confirms that Heathrow made the right decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances. Whilst the disruption was significant, alternative choices on the day would not have materially changed the outcome," Ms Kelly at Heathrow's preparedness, the report's authors found the contingency plans in place "overall worked well". The review also examined whether the airport should have anticipated what impact a loss of power from the substation would have. It found that Heathrow had "assessed its high voltage electricity supply as resilient due to it having three separate intakes from the National Grid, all with multiple connections to the airport and multiple transformers at the National Grid/SSEN substations providing redundancy in the event of failure".The review states the airport had deemed what occurred in March as a "low likelihood event".Lord Deighton said the Kelly Review was "thorough with clear recommendations which the management team will be taking forward". March's shutdown cost airlines millions of pounds and stranded hundreds of thousands of interim report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso), published earlier this month, said the cause of the North Hyde substation fire remained unknown. Heathrow's management has been criticised for the decision to close the airport and the long shutdown that followed as Neso said power had been restored seven hours before any flights full report is expected to be published by the end of June.
