Luton airport – first cars removed from fire damaged car park

Almost two weeks after a huge fire at Luton airport, the first vehicles are finally being removed from the damaged multi storey car park.

Neil Thompson, Operations Director at London Luton Airport, said: “Having worked with our engineers, experts and insurers, we are getting closer every day to making a final decision on what is going to happen to the car park and the vehicles contained within it.

“Positively, working with our structural engineers we are in the process of removing around a hundred cars from the top deck of the car park for the purposes of stabilising the structure. Once removed, these cars will be stored in a safe compound.

“As you’ll appreciate, this will be an incredibly difficult operation involving a large crane and team of experts. After we have removed and stored the cars, we will contact customers and work with insurers in due course to inform them of the process of recovery for those cars. Only then will the condition of those cars be able to be assessed.

“For all other vehicles in the car park, the assessment remains largely unchanged from my previous updates, that no cars can currently be accessed or removed from the car park. The structure remains fundamentally unsafe and the adverse weather over the last few days hasn’t helped.

“We will continue to provide regular updates.”

A man in his 30s has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and released on bail following the blaze.