The Heathrow Airport shutdown, which caused millions of dollars in losses, was due to a faulty bushing

The fire at the power substation that led to the shutdown of London's Heathrow Airport began after a failure of a high-voltage electrical insulator, known as a bushing. This is according to a report by the National Energy System Operator (NESO), reports Sky News.

According to the document, the malfunction was "most likely" caused by moisture getting inside the equipment.

According to NESO, National Grid, which owns the substation, knew about the faulty bushing as early as 2018, but did not replace it.

In addition, the company postponed scheduled routine maintenance of the substation, and thus "failed to take appropriate action regarding a serious problem."

Heathrow, Europe's largest airport, was shut down after a fire at a substation for approximately 16 hours on March 21.

The incident affected more than 270,000 passenger journeys, resulting in losses of tens of millions of pounds sterling.

• On January 28, a passenger plane caught fire at the international airport in Busan, in the southeast of South Korea, and three people were injured during the evacuation.
• On March 10, thousands of flights were canceled at Germany's largest airports due to a major strike.