London Airport Boss Slept Through Blackout Emergency

A power outage at London’s Heathrow Airport in March led to a prolonged shutdown, stranding around 200,000 passengers. According to a review of the incident, the airport’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, was asleep at home with his phone on silent when the blackout occurred. The outage began around 11:55 pm, but Woldbye was not made aware of the situation until approximately 6:45 am the next morning, despite numerous attempts by the airport’s chief of operations, Javier Echave, to contact him. With Woldbye unreachable, Echave chaired crisis meetings and made the decision to shut down the airport for nearly a full day. The review committee recommended that Heathrow consider enhancing its notification process for critical incidents, including alternative methods to reach key individuals. (newser)