Terror police investigate Heathrow Airport 'sabotage'

Suspicion falls on Russia over electricity substation blaze that shut down all five London terminals

A deserted Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport. Residents close to the electricity substation that caught fire said they heard 'explosive-like' noises. EPA

London Heathrow fire - your questions answered

Counterterrorism police were investigating an electricity substation fire that shut Britain's Heathrow airport on Friday, as officials “discussed [the incident] as sabotage” involving a foreign country.

It has still to be established whether the airport will reopen on Saturday, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's official spokesman saying “it’s clearly a fast-moving situation”.

A source involved in Heathrow's security described the investigation behind the scenes to The National after it was reported that residents close to the substation in Hayes, on the western outskirts of London, heard “explosive-like” noises in the early hours of Friday.

It is now vital to discover the cause of the fire, Britain’s Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said. He added that a back-up generator had also been shut down by the fire. It is expected that there will be a Cobra emergency meeting of ministers and security chiefs on Friday.

The Metropolitan Police said its Counter Terrorism Command was leading the investigation into the fire at an electrical substation in west London “given the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure.” A representative for the Met said there was “no indication of foul play” but detectives “retain an open mind” over the cause.

If it is sabotage then Russia will be a prime suspect. Its “active measures” teams have conducted several missions across Europe in recent months to deter its enemies from supporting Ukraine, an intelligence expert said.

There are also questions over how a single electricity substation going offline could close the world’s second busiest airport, said MP Ruth Cadbury, chairwoman of the Commons transport committee. She added it was “very, very concerning” that there was not “an alternative source of energy”.

On a day of air travel chaos:

· All flights in and out of Heathrow were cancelled until at least midnight, affecting more than 1,000 flights;

· About 120 flights were diverted to cities such as Amsterdam or Paris, or returned to where they started;

· Passengers were told to expect disruption into the weekend as crews and flight schedules are thrown into disorder;

· Airlines told passengers to sit tight for rebooking updates as they struggle with high volumes of enquiries;

· Flights between London and the UAE were cancelled and some passengers were left confused by messages from their airlines.

Sabotage suspected

The National can also disclose that all power was lost to Terminal Two and Terminal Four but the decision was taken from 3am to put a “no flow rate” on the entire airport, closing all five terminals to aircraft.

The source also said that the airport was unlikely to open until Saturday morning.

Sabotage at the electricity plant about 2km north of the airport would be a major embarrassment to the UK and have significant implications for confidence in its critical infrastructure.

The Heathrow source disclosed that a “state actor” could have been behind the fire. “Sabotage is a conversation that's actively going on and yes we’re discussing it in terms of a state actor,” the source added.

If a technical fault or accident is ruled out then Britain’s intelligence services MI6, MI5 and GCHQ will all contribute to the investigation with Russia viewed as the prime culprit, security analysts have said.

“We've been assessing that there is an increased likelihood of Russian sabotage in Britain,” said Alexander Lord, of geopolitical intelligence firm Sibylline. “We've had a number of investigations across Europe, in Germany, Lithuania and Poland over the last month that have concluded that a Russian element is active.”

This includes a fire at an Ikea store in Lithuania and another one on a DHL cargo plane in Germany in November.

In a briefing to journalists, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said it was “too early to say what has caused fire” but there would be “questions to answer”.

“There will have to be a thorough investigation into the cause,” he said. “There's absolutely no doubt that there are questions to answer on how this has happened.” He did not comment on whether Britain would now enhance security around critical infrastructure.

Active measures teams

Mr Lord pointed to the timing of the incident following a key meeting in London on Thursday of more than 30 military chiefs across Europe. They met to discuss the “burgeoning coalition of the willing” that in Mr Starmer’s words would “operationalise the plan to effectively enforce a peace settlement in Ukraine and deter Russia”.

“This is an extraordinarily important period for European security, but also for Russian security,” Mr Lord added. “Moscow has a modus operandi and capability to conduct so-called active measures to achieve its strategic objectives and deter perceived adversaries from making decisions contrary to Russian interests.”

The intelligence firm had assessed that Britain was a high priority target for Russia in that “the Kremlin considers the UK to be amongst, if not the most anti-Russian state and is influencing wider European policy towards Russia in a major way”.

Mr Miliband said it was “too early to say” what caused the fire but the government “will have to look hard at the causes and also the protection and the resilience that is in place for major institutions like Heathrow”.

“With any event like this, we'll have to both understand its causes and learn lessons from it,” he added.

The head of Optimal Risk, a security firm with links to the British government, agreed it looked like sabotage, with Russia almost certainly the culprit.

“That this is Russian sabotage really strikes me as a standout,” said Mike O’Neill, the company’s managing director.

“With Starmer standing up to Russia and promising to continue supplying weapons to Ukraine then suddenly, a major substation goes off. My thinking is that this is sabotage and has to be investigated as sabotage.”

Mr O’Neill, a former specialist military operator, added that “a small amount of explosives in the right place could cause a lot of damage” and the substation’s security locks and fences “can be defeated”.

Back-up questions

Serious questions will also be asked about why a single electricity station being knocked out could shut down the world’s second busiest airport.

If it was sabotage then whichever state conducted it had inside knowledge of Heathrow’s key vulnerability.

The airport insider told The National that Heathrow “does not have a good back-up plan” and that the “infrastructure is not fit for purpose any more”.

“Too much money has been taken out and not invested in the right places and effectively Heathrow has been run into the ground,” the source added.

Mr O’Neill highlighted that the incident demonstrated a “serious lack of resilience planning that one substation outage could shut down Heathrow” and revealed “a serious vulnerability” for all the UK’s airports.