Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye went back to bed to make sure he was ‘well rested’ rather than work through the night as a fire raged through a power substation, it emerged last night.
He was at an event in central London when the power first went out at 11pm on Thursday, prompting him to return to the airport west of the capital.
When the scale of the incident became clear, senior leaders were split into two ‘gold commands’.
In the early hours of Friday, it was decided that Woldbye’s command group would go to bed.
His deputy Javier Echave was left in charge and he took the final decision to close the airport, sending a notice to air crew at 1.44am.
Woldbye resumed work by phone at 7.30am and was in his office at Compass House, Heathrow’s head office, shortly after 9am.
Insiders told the Sunday Times that the decision for Woldbye to go to bed was taken on safety grounds. It was felt vital that the person at the top was well-rested to make clear decisions.
Sean Doyle, chief executive of British Airways, and Shai Weiss, the Virgin Atlantic boss, were reported to have worked through the night from their headquarters.
Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye went back to bed to make sure he was ‘well rested’ rather than work through the night as a fire raged through a power substation
Heathrow bosses were facing questions about how a small fire shut down one of the world’s biggest airports. Pictured: The fire at Hayes electrical substation
Doorbell footage has emerged of the moment a huge fireball erupted into the sky from the nearby power substation
A Heathrow spokesperson told MailOnline: ‘We do not recognise the description of proceedings as set out in the Sunday Times.
‘We have a robust crisis protocol that ensures we have experienced leaders able to take key decisions having had adequate rest – without compromising passenger or colleague safety by being too tired.
‘This protocol was followed so that Thomas, and his whole senior leadership team, were exactly where they were supposed to be during an incident of this scale. Under round-the-clock leadership, teams across Heathrow were able to fully reopen in 24 hours and deliver an extended schedule on Saturday.
‘While we are sorry that passengers and customers were impacted by the closure of the airport on Friday, our performance in safely accommodating over 250,000 passengers on Saturday shows that the correct decisions were taken at the right time.
‘While some commentators spread ill-informed misinformation, we will focus on serving our passengers.’
Woldbye yesterday lauded Heathrow’s response to the crisis as he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he was ‘personally quite proud’ with how the airport coped.
Nearly 300,000 passengers were affected by the meltdown, which led to the cancellation or delay of more than 1,350 flights.
The fire It resulted in unprecedented scenes, grounding flights for most of the day and exposing a major vulnerability in the country’s infrastructure. Dramatic images show flames tearing through the substation as smoke billows into the night sky
Tens of thousands of travellers are still stranded across the globe today after a blaze at an electricity substation cut power to the airport. Pictured: A tearful stranded couple at Heathrow T5
Meanwhile, doorbell footage has emerged of the moment a huge fireball erupted into the sky from the nearby power substation.
In another development, it was revealed that UK power bosses had claimed that a stoppage like the one that crippled Heathrow would happen only once every 346 years.
The Sun on Sunday reported that a National Grid report from 2023 calculated the overall reliability of the country’s supply was 99.999997 per cent.
It equates to the probability of a one-minute outage happening once in 5.8 years and a one-hour cut once in 346 years.
The unprecedented shutdown of Britain’s busiest airport grounded flights for most of the day and exposed a major vulnerability in the country’s infrastructure.
A probe into the disaster was being led by counter-terrorism police, while Westminster sources blamed human error.
Some 120 transatlantic services were forced to turn round in mid-journey.
Passengers on flights from Singapore and Perth were diverted to Paris before taking buses to London.
As eight long-haul British Airways flights finally took off on Friday night, analysts criticised the airport, the busiest in Europe, for its inability to rely on backup power.
Last night, a probe into the disaster was being led by counter-terrorism police, while Westminster sources blamed human error. Pictured: Firefighters douse the remainder of a fire that broke out at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport in Hayes, west London
The smouldering North Hyde electrical substation
A firefighter helps putting out a fire that broke out at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport — March 21, 2025
Some 120 transatlantic services were forced to turn round in mid-journey. Passengers on flights from Singapore and Perth were diverted to Paris before taking buses to London
Willie Walsh, director-general of global airlines body IATA and a former head of British Airways, said Heathrow had once again let passengers down.
‘Firstly, how is it that critical infrastructure – of national and global importance – is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative,’ he said.
‘If that is the case – as it seems – then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.’
Phil Hewitt, director of energy analysis firm Montel Group, said: ‘This potential lack of resilience at a critical national and international infrastructure site is worrying.
‘An airport as large and as important as Heathrow should not be vulnerable to a single point of failure.’
Heathrow has its own biomass power plant and diesel backup generators, but they can power only essential safety systems, such as lighting and exit doors.
The airport’s electricity usually comes from three substations, each of which has a backup transformer.
In the case of the damaged North Hyde substation, in west London, its backup transformer was also lost in the fire, which started shortly before midnight on Thursday.
Within hours, theories were swirling that sabotage, possibly even by Russia, may have been the cause.
Despite the involvement of counter-terror officers, Scotland Yard said it was ‘not treating this incident as suspicious, although enquiries do remain ongoing’.
‘Various specialist investigators continue to examine the scene and it is expected to take some time before full assessments can be completed,’ a spokesman said.
The Politico website said those ‘familiar with the investigations’ were pointing towards a mistake by an electrical engineer sparking the fire. ‘It’s always a cock-up rather than conspiracy,’ a source said.
