Experts think that Russia may have been behind that the electrical fire that shut down Heathrow Airport for 24 hours
They and the British media are speculating that the fire could have been an act of war by Putin.
The Daily Express reports: Questions are arising over the cause of a fire at Hayes electricity substation, which has plunged thousands of people into travel chaos after it forced the closure of Heathrow Airport. Over 1,300 flights could be affected as the UK’s busiest airport remains closed until 23:59 on Friday. The London Fire Bridage said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters responded to the fire, where they found an alight transformer.
It is not yet known how the transformer caught fire, leading to questions regarding possible foreign interference from one of the UK’s adversaries, such as Russia. Defence analyst and consultant Nicholas Drummond said that while it was “unlikely” that Russia was behind the fire, the potential sabotage would be considered “a direct act of war.”
According to the Sun: Former Colonel Hamish de Bretton Gordon said: “This has all the hallmarks of Russian sabotage.
“There is still no hard evidence, but circumstantially, this is straight out of Moscow’s sabotage playbook.
“We don’t hear of substations catching fire very often. And for the back up system to fail was well. The timing is very suspicious.”
Ex-Major General Jonathan Shaw, a former director of Special Forces and expert on UK resilience, said: “Obviously we should be worried that this could be Russia.
“It is definitely a possibility. And it shows how vulnerable we are. We need a complete change of mindset.”
And another senior defence source, talking on the condition of anonymity, said: “I think the government needs to look very carefully at what caused a vital substation to burst into flames just after a conference in London to talk about putting European military in Ukraine.
“We need to be certain it was just an accident.”
Security expert Will Geddes, director and founder of the International Corporate Protection Group, said: “Heathrow has been looking at expanding – this isn’t a great advert for their ability to do so safely.
“If I was a foreign hostile party and I wanted to disrupt one of the busiest airports in the world, cause international embarrassment, create many, many question marks, I would target something like a substation.”
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