London’s Heathrow Airport closed after nearby fire cuts power; global flight schedules disrupted

LONDON – Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut on March 21 after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out its power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.

The London Fire Brigade said that the fire in an electricity substation in Hayes was now under control.

“Our fire investigators will begin their investigation and we will continue working closely with our partners to minimise disruption and support the community,” it said in an X post on March 21.

Around 70 firefighters had been tackling the blaze in the west of London, which caused a mass power outage at Heathrow, Europe’s busiest and the world’s fifth busiest airport, and also knocked out its back-up power system.

Huge orange flames and plumes of smoke could be seen shooting into the sky. Around 150 people were evacuated from nearby buildings and thousands of properties were without power.

Heathrow said the airport, which was due to handle 1,351 flights during the day, flying up to 291,000 passengers, would stay closed until midnight (8am on March 22 Singapore time) as it was experiencing a significant power outage.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information,” it said. “We apologise for the inconvenience.”

The fire, which was reported just after 11pm on March 20, forced planes to divert to airports across Britain and Europe, while many long-haul flights simply returned to their point of departure.

Energy Minister Ed Miliband said the “catastrophic” fire had prevented the power backup system from working and that engineers were working to deploy a third backup mechanism. He said it was too soon to say what had caused the blaze.

“There was a backup generator but that was also affected by the fire which gives a sense of how unusual and unprecedented it was,” he told Sky News.

“With any incident like this we will want to understand why it happened and what if any lessons it has for our infrastructure.”

Industry experts warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the visa paperwork to leave the airport. Global flight schedules will also be affected more broadly as many aircraft will now be out of position.

“Heathrow is one of the major hubs of the world,” said Mr Ian Petchenik, spokesman for FlightRadar24. “This is going to disrupt airlines’ operations around the world.”

British Airways, the biggest carrier at Heathrow, had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on March 21.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, at least 120 inbound flights to Heathrow were having to divert to other airports in the early morning.

Qantas Airways sent its flight from Perth to Paris, a United Airlines New York flight headed to Shannon, Ireland, and a United Airlines flight from San Francisco was due to land in Washington DC rather than London.

Seven United Airlines flights returned to their airport of origin or to other airports and all March 21 flights to London Heathrow are being cancelled, a spokesperson said.

Singapore Airlines’ flight SQ318, which was supposed to depart from Singapore at 12.45pm on March 21, was cancelled.

It was among six flights that are scheduled to depart from Changi Airport for Heathrow Airport between 12pm on March 21 and 1.30am on March 22.

Qantas told The Straits Times that flight QF1 is on its way to London and has been diverted to Paris. The airline has arranged buses to take customers for an estimated nine-hour-long ride to London.

Flights QF2 and QF10 scheduled to depart Heathrow Airport for Changi Airport on March 21 are also likely to be impacted. Qantas added that it is closely monitoring the situation and will contact customers directly if their flight is affected.

Britain’s Gatwick Airport said it would accept some flights from Heathrow.

“We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and are supporting as required. Flights from London Gatwick are operating as normal today,” Gatwick Airport said on X.

The police cordoned off the roads around the airport, local train routes were stopped and around 40 people were seen before 7am walking away from Heathrow’s Terminal 5 with their luggage.

Chaotic days ahead

Travel experts said the disruption would extend far beyond Heathrow.

Airlines’ carefully choreographed networks depend on airplanes and crews being in specific locations at specific times. Dozens of air carriers will have to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to move planes and crews around.

“The other question is, what will airlines do to deal with the backlog of passengers?” said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group.

“It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.”

Some passengers turned to social media.

Mr Adrian Spender, who works at British retailer Tesco, said in a post on X that he was on an Airbus A380 that had been headed for Heathrow.

“#Heathrow no idea where we are going yet. Currently over Austria.”

On the ground in London, a number of homes and businesses were without power.

British utility firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on its website that an “unplanned outage” had left more than 16,000 homes without power in the area.

“Firefighters have led 29 people to safety from neighbouring properties, and as a precaution, a 200m cordon has been established, with around 150 people evacuated,” the fire brigade said.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night.”

The fire was described as “catastrophic” by Britain’s energy minister Ed Miliband, who said that the back-up generator for Heaththrow had also been affected by the blaze.

He said there was a further back-up system which National Grid was seeking to use to restore power.

London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne said the fire was first reported at 11.23pm.

Heathrow, and London’s other major airports, have been hit by outages in the past in recent years, most recently by an automated gate failure and an air traffic system meltdown, both in 2023.

A Heathrow spokesperson told Reuters in an email that there was no clarity on when power would be restored, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.

Heathrow handles more than than 80 million passengers a year and the operator says there are around 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.

It opened in 1946 as London Airport before being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make way for the construction.

Situated 25km west of central London, the present Heathrow serves 200 destinations in more than 80 countries, with passengers having access to four terminals.

Among its main flight destinations in 2024 were Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York. REUTERS, AFP

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