Transport secretary dodges question over embattled Heathrow boss who 'went back to sleep' during fire

24 March 2025, 10:01 | Updated: 24 March 2025, 10:19

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has declined to say if she has confidence in the Heathrow boss who 'went back to sleep' during the fire.

Heathrow was thrust into chaos on Friday as Europe's busiest airport was brought to a standstill by a substation inferno, with thousands stranded, hundreds of flights cancelled, and over 100 nearby residents evacuated.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Ms Alexander said CEO Thomas Woldbye was available instantaneously when she asked to speak to him and they had an important conversation about their recovery plans.

She would not say if she had full confidence in him but said, in his position, she would have had trouble sleeping.

Mr Woldbye went back to bed as the situation developed overnight, it has been reported.

It came as senior leadership was split into two "gold commands", according to The Sunday Times.

One worked through the night and the other came in for the morning as the airport was gripped by chaos.

Read more: Heathrow 'had enough power' amid shutdown despite 'unprecedented' blaze, National Grid boss says

Read more: Why Heathrow Airport boss 'went to bed' as inferno raged while 300,000 passengers faced flight chaos

Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander | 24/03/25

When asked about the incident, Ms Alexander told Nick: "I want to see the results of this internal investigation the Heathrow board have commissioned, looking at their resilience planning.

"The government has also instructed an organisation called Neso, which is the national energy systems operator, to conduct a review of the incident as well, and to look at whether there are any wider lessons that should be learnt."

Addressing Mr Woldbye's decision to go back to sleep, she said: "It's my understanding that he placed in charge his chief operation officer.

"He will have also known that there was going to be a huge number of very difficult decisions the following day.

"I’m not going to justify decisions that Heathrow leadership did or didn’t take. I wasn’t sat at the table, I didn’t have the information that he had available to him at that time."

National Grid boss John Pettigrew has insisted that the airport had enough power to keep running despite the "unprecedented blaze".

"There was no lack of capacity from the substations," he told the Financial Times.

He said two other substations were still working throughout the fire, adding that "each substation individually can provide enough power to Heathrow".