What made chief executives choke on their Rice Krispies on the morning of March 21 was the news that London Heathrow had grounded ALL flights because its back-up power supply couldn’t actually provide any power. A ‘Plan B’ that doesn’t work isn’t really a plan.

Bizarrely, National Grid later said there was enough electricity supply from two other substations to keep the airport going after all. I expect that understanding why the supply didn’t seamlessly switch over will be a key point covered in the steward’s enquiry ordered by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband. With an estimated cost of at least £20 million for airlines and suppliers alone, this revelation will be hard to swallow for many. It certainly is a massive dose of ‘snap, crackle and pop’.

As a travel tech CTO, two things struck me about the Heathrow blackout. Firstly, you have to plan for what you think might go wrong. But you also have to plan for what you think surely can’t go wrong. As the chaos at Heathrow showed, it just might.

Second, and contrary to what some people have written, I don’t think the corporate travel sector is fully tooled up to deal with major disruptions. And that’s in spite of the lessons we learned back in 2010 with the ash cloud from that Icelandic volcano whose name no one can pronounce. This time, like then, many travel management companies did a great job of assisting travellers with trip rebooking and other emergency support.

Forget chief executives though – when I thought about the predicament this event left travel managers in, it made me wonder how many had instant access to a traveller tracking tool. Being able to understand – at the touch of a button – where all your travellers are, access their trip itinerary and generate a report listing everyone scheduled to fly into or out of the airport over the next 48 hours is essential when swift action needs to be taken.

At TripStax, we work with world-respected partners such as Riskline, Crisis 24, Cirium and Esendex to channel real-time risk intelligence data into our ‘Track’ module. Tools such as this help to fulfil duty of care responsibilities, crisis management obligations and insurance requirements. The positive impact on operational efficiency can be massive.

From live traveller tracking and health and security risk dashboards to multi-channel communication tools, audit trials and detailed reporting, it’s something worth having in one’s arsenal. Travel managers can access duty of care tools directly or via their TMC – although not all TMCs have this technology readily available.

It’s only a matter of time before another unexpected event leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. But for now, I’ll leave you to ponder one of my favourite quotes: fail to plan, plan to fail.

Scott Wylie is Chief Technology Officer at TripStax