UK’s Heathrow Defends Decision to Shut Airport Amid Blame Game 

A girl holds a balloon as people walk at Terminal 2 of the Heathrow International Airport, a day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out the power at the airport, near London, Britain, March 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A girl holds a balloon as people walk at Terminal 2 of the Heathrow International Airport, a day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out the power at the airport, near London, Britain, March 22, 2025. (Reuters)
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UK’s Heathrow Defends Decision to Shut Airport Amid Blame Game 

A girl holds a balloon as people walk at Terminal 2 of the Heathrow International Airport, a day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out the power at the airport, near London, Britain, March 22, 2025. (Reuters)
A girl holds a balloon as people walk at Terminal 2 of the Heathrow International Airport, a day after a fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out the power at the airport, near London, Britain, March 22, 2025. (Reuters)

Britain's Heathrow defended its decision to shut down operations at Europe's busiest airport last Friday as the blame game intensified over an 18-hour closure which cost airlines tens of millions of pounds and stranded thousands of passengers.

As questions mounted over how such a critical part of Britain's infrastructure could fail and whether all Heathrow's four terminals needed to shut, both National Grid and Heathrow agreed that the failure of the transformer was an unprecedented event.

But the airport was forced to defend its closure after the boss of National Grid told the Financial Times that the electricity transmission network remained capable of providing power to the airport throughout the crisis.

Heathrow said the fire at a nearby substation late on Thursday interrupted its operations, forcing it to shut while it reconfigured systems and switched to power from an alternative substation.

"Hundreds of critical systems across the airport were required to be safely powered down and then safely and systematically rebooted," a Heathrow spokesperson said.

"Given Heathrow's size and operational complexity, safely restarting operations after a disruption of this magnitude was a significant challenge."

John Pettigrew, the CEO of National Grid, said there were two other substations able to provide power to Heathrow, showing that the grid was resilient.

"Two substations were always available for the distribution network companies and Heathrow to take power," he told the FT.

While airlines such as British Airways, the worse affected, add up the bill for the closure, the government and Heathrow have both commissioned reviews into what happened.

"It's really important that we do learn the lessons from this, and that's why I think those two reviews...are going to be really critical," Transport Minister Heidi Alexander told Sky News on Monday.

Asked on LBC Radio about whether she had confidence in Heathrow's CEO Thomas Woldbye, Alexander said she wanted to see the results of the reviews.



Malta Offers to Repair Gaza Aid Ship in Drone Strike Row

FILE PHOTO: A tug vessel puts a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Government Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Government of Malta/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A tug vessel puts a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Government Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Government of Malta/Handout via REUTERS
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Malta Offers to Repair Gaza Aid Ship in Drone Strike Row

FILE PHOTO: A tug vessel puts a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Government Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Government of Malta/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A tug vessel puts a fire on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla vessel Conscience outside Maltese territorial waters in this handout picture provided by Malta Government Department of Information, May 2, 2025. Government of Malta/Handout via REUTERS

Malta offered on Sunday to repair an aid ship and send it on its way to Gaza after pro-Palestinian activists said the vessel had been hit by a drone strike.

But Prime Minister Robert Abela said the Freedom Flotilla Coalition must first allow a maritime surveyor on board to inspect the "Conscience" and determine what repairs are needed, AFP reported.

The pro-Palestinian activists had pointed the finger at Israel, which has blockaded the Gaza Strip throughout its military campaign against Hamas, for the attack.

If the ship can be fixed at sea, it will be, but otherwise it will be towed under Maltese control to the Mediterranean island for repairs, paid for by Malta.

"In the last few hours there was insistence that first the boat comes into Maltese waters and then the surveyor is allowed onboard," Abela said.

"Before a vessel -- any vessel -- is allowed to enter Maltese waters then control must be in the hands of Maltese authorities, especially when we are talking about a vessel with no flag, no insurance."

In an online press conference, members of the coalition who had been due to board the Conscience in Malta -- including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg -- said they had agreed to allow the inspection.

"When we received this offer from the Maltese government, we consulted with all of our Flotilla Coalition committee members who are on board," said Brazilian FFC volunteer Thiago Avila.

"And their decision is that this is a good proposition from the Maltese government," he said.

"As long as they can guarantee ... Conscience will not be stopped when it wants to leave on the humanitarian mission to take aid to Gaza."

The activists explained the Conscience has no flag because the government of the Pacific nation of Palau had announced that they were withdrawing their registration on Friday, the day of the alleged strike.

Otherwise, they insisted they had made every effort to comply with international maritime law when embarking on the mission to take aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

According to the Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience was attacked in international waters as it headed for Malta on Friday, causing a fire that disabled the vessel and minor injuries to crew members.

Maltese and Cypriot rescuers responded. No government has confirmed the Conscience was the victim of drones, but Cyprus's rescue agency said it had been informed by the island's foreign ministry of an Israeli strike.

The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.

First reported by CNN, a flight tracking service showed that an Israeli C-130 military cargo plane had been in the area immediately before the incident and had made several low altitude sweeps over the area.

Israel is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later.

The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat's generator.