London police announced Tuesday, March 25, that they had concluded that the fire caused the electricity failure at Heathrow airport, which led to its closure and the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Friday, was not of criminal origin. The anti -terrorist unit of the Metropolitan Police has found “No element suggesting that the incident was suspect in nature”. “Consequently, we no longer consider this affair as potentially criminal”she said in a statement.
This unit had been seized to shed light on this incident touching a “Essential national infrastructure”. The fire broke out Thursday evening in an electrical transformation position in Hayes, in western London. The police had said on Friday not having noticed “Sign of intentional act”.
Heathrow airport, one of the busiest in the world, remained closed all day Friday because of this breakdown, before being operational again on Saturday. This closure has led to chain disturbances in global air traffic, with hundreds of abolished or confused flights.
The operator of the national electricity network Grid, London firefighters and Southern Electricity Network will continue to investigate the causes of the incident.
The Minister of Energy, Ed Miliband, asked the National Grid to provide him with his first conclusions within six weeks.
The director general of Heathrow, Thomas Woldbye, will be questioned by the deputies on April 2 during an exceptional session in the British Parliament.
Source: Lemonde