The Heathrow Blackout: A Wake-Up Call for Business Continuity Planning

In the early hours of 21 March, a catastrophic fire at an electrical substation near Heathrow Airport brought one of the world’s busiest transport hubs to a grinding halt. With over 1,300 flights cancelled and more than 16,000 homes affected by power outages, the disruption is set to ripple across global supply chains, business schedules, and personal travel for days to come.

But while headlines focus on the fire, the deeper issue lies in the absence of a robust business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan—something every critical operation should have in place. Heathrow’s apparent lack of an immediate, automatic failover system underscores a stark reality: without preparation, resilience is just a buzzword.

Could This Have Been Prevented?

It’s one thing to suffer an unpredictable disaster. It’s another entirely to be caught without a safety net. At Norango, we specialise in delivering enterprise-grade business continuity solutions that ensure you never lose contact with your customers—no matter the crisis.

Unlike Heathrow, Norango clients never go dark. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our systems recorded zero downtime. Our 24/7 call handling, email, and live chat operations continued seamlessly, even as the world shut down. Every one of our clients remained reachable, agile, and in control—thanks to built-in redundancy, remote-first infrastructure, and intelligent call routing.

Why Choose Norango?

✅ 99.99% Uptime Guarantee Our systems are designed with failover capabilities across multiple data centres. Whether it’s a local outage or a global emergency, your customer contact remains uninterrupted.

✅ Instant Activation, Zero Downtime We can switch to backup systems at the flick of a switch—literally. Our teams are trained and our platforms are configured to pivot instantly, preserving your reputation and revenue.

✅ No Capital Expenditure There’s no need to invest in costly hardware or licences. Norango’s service is fully cloud-based and scales with your business needs.

✅ Disaster Recovery is Built-In With Norango, you don’t “add on” BC/DR. It’s baked into the service from day one.

What’s at Stake?

The cost of downtime is more than financial—it’s reputational. In high-stakes environments like aviation, finance, healthcare, or logistics, a single hour of silence can erode trust built over years. Heathrow’s shutdown will affect more than just today’s passengers—it will be a case study in failure to prepare.

Your Safety Net Is a Call Away

If you’re still relying on outdated infrastructure, hoping it’ll hold up in a crisis, it’s time to rethink. Business continuity shouldn’t be optional—it should be operational.

📞 Speak to Norango today about protecting your business from the unexpected. Let’s make sure that if the lights go out, your customers are never left in the dark.

👉 Contact us now to schedule a free BC/DR readiness consultation.