Hayes Electrical Substation Fire

[SpeedBash]

Started late on Thursday evening and, at the time of writing, appears LFB are still working to bring it under control.

Hopefully, no casualties when this does eventually get sorted.

LFB: Fire at electrical substation - Hayes

Hayes fire: Heathrow airport closed for 24Hrs after blaze at electrical substation in west London

[Countdown]

I’m surprised Heathrow doesn’t have its own generators for this kind of eventuality.

[eliot]

Countdown said:

I’m surprised Heathrow doesn’t have its own generators for this kind of eventuality.

They would have gennys for the critical stuff (although they have failed in the past) but I doubt very much that they would have enough genny capacity to run the non critical “house” loads which will be substantial, besides there’s going be multiple substations running that place.

[London424]

Up early for first flight out to Copenhagen and get the email saying flight cancelled. Back to bed for a couple of hours

[wisbech]

eliot said:

They would have gennys for the critical stuff (although they have failed in the past) but I doubt very much that they would have enough genny capacity to run the non critical “house” loads which will be substantial, besides there’s going be multiple substations running that place.

This - there will be enough to keep the runway lights and ATC on. But not enough for the pumps for the fuel systems, heating, baggage systems etc.

So if aircraft were on final approach, they can still land.

[WonkeyDonkey]

Closing Heathrow must be a logistical nightmare for all the flights currently in air.

Flights being diverted everywhere, mainly Gatwick but quite a few to Amsterdam and even Helsinki. What a nightmare for the passengers!

Probably a good job it happened overnight as I'd imagine a lot of these airports would only have spare capacity in the early hours of the morning.

Edited by WonkeyDonkey on Friday 21st March 05:06

[Bright Halo]

You would think with it being so vital to keep Heathrow going that there would be a back up supply so power supply would be switched to be drawn from another substation?

[Tim330]

I was just over 2 hours out of Miami heading to Heathrow when we had to turn back, not fun at Miami trying to get rebooked

[Cold]

Russia whistles innocently.

[Vasco]

All those planes now in the wrong place. Air crews out of flying hours, passengers plans messed up for many days.
.
How on earth was there no effective Plan B ??

[easytiger123]

The silence in the skies above NW London is remarkable. You get so used to the sound of aircraft engines, that it's only when it stops that it seems strange.

[100SRV]

Cold said:

Russia whistles innocently.

That was my first thought too..

[W12GT]

Cold said:

Russia whistles innocently.

This was my first thought, given other fires in Europe.

[WestyCarl]

100SRV said:

Cold said:

Russia whistles innocently.

That was my first thought too..

Igor and Ivan now looking at their return flight tickets realising the escape plan wasn't fully though through.....

[Alex Z]

Vasco said:

All those planes now in the wrong place. Air crews out of flying hours, passengers plans messed up for many days.
.
How on earth was there no effective Plan B ??

That would mean a spare Heathrow waiting to be used.

[Ian Geary]

Vasco said:

All those planes now in the wrong place. Air crews out of flying hours, passengers plans messed up for many days.
.
How on earth was there no effective Plan B ??

I think this is it.

Plan A is to have a working airport.

Plan B is to not have a working airport and everyone just do something else for a while.

Our country's financial position is no secret and it just wouldn't be feasible to build surplus capacity into infrastructure to the extent you have an entirely duplicated energy system.

Critical stuff:yes but as already pointed out, the entire airport works on electricity, from the automatic doors down to the overpriced vending machines.

[Vasco]

Alex Z said:

Vasco said:

All those planes now in the wrong place. Air crews out of flying hours, passengers plans messed up for many days.
.
How on earth was there no effective Plan B ??

That would mean a spare Heathrow waiting to be used.

Really ? - I was thinking of a back-up electricity substation that could be brought into use.
.

[White-Noise]

Be interesting to see what they make of this. I had Russia in my mind as well.

[fourstardan]

I've looked at the departures board and flights are still going out ?

[Murph7355]

eliot said:

Countdown said:

I’m surprised Heathrow doesn’t have its own generators for this kind of eventuality.

They would have gennys for the critical stuff (although they have failed in the past) but I doubt very much that they would have enough genny capacity to run the non critical “house” loads which will be substantial, besides there’s going be multiple substations running that place.

Indeed.

More surprising is the lack of diverse supplies. Not cool for a site like this.