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47Until its third runway sees the light of day, Heathrow International Airport will remain the busiest two-runway airport in the world. It handles a flight every minute — 45 seconds at peak traffic — caters 1300 flights every day, 80 million passengers a year. Operating at 99% capacity, higher than Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol, it is evident that the tiniest snag in flight scheduling can rapidly deteriorate into an operational nightmare.
And that is exactly what happened when Heathrow — without explanation — suspended all arrivals and departures. The situation exacerbated when Gatwick, Luton and Stansted followed suit. Passengers stranded at the airports and checking their messages and social feeds arrived at one conclusion: a terror attack!
From then, speculation spread like wildf
