The Heathrow London airport, one of the busiest in the world, has announced a complete closure all day today due to a “significant power cut” as a result of a large fire near.
The airport declared that “passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstance until it opens again.”
He also warned that significant interruptions are expected in the next few days.
“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on March 21,” Heathrow airport said in a statement on X. which is 11 AM Aedt on Saturday.
The closure could affect tens of thousands of travelers. Heathrow was the fourth lowest airport in the world in 2023, according to the most recent data, with a record of 83.9 million passengers that passed last year.
It was extended by five terminals and is located 22 kilometers west in the center of London, it usually extends to 99 percent capacity, with each important airline that passes, which means that it is always very busy.
“Heathrow drives about a quarter of a million passengers a day. He does it with around 1300 flights per day,” said Aviation Analyst Geoffrey Thomas on Friday.
“We literally have hundreds of flights from the United States, from Southeast Asia, the Middle East.”
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The Airlines Cirium analysis firm estimated that “more than 145,000” passengers could be affected.
The double American citizen-name Kim Mikkel Skibrek had already been flying for three hours from Minneapolis to London when the crew announced that they had to return due to the fire.
“Everything is fine. People were frustrated with the flight that returned after more than three hours, but now it seems that everyone is calmer,” Skibrek told CNN. He was traveling home to Oslo to be with his father fighting cancer, and said he will have to get another flight as soon as possible.
On the same flight, Abby Hertz and his family were traveling to London for the wedding of her husband’s best friend. The couple had postponed the wedding once due to Covid and finally married now that their son was in remission of leukemia, said Hertz, but it is not clear if they can do the wedding now.
Meanwhile, at JFK airport in New York, Passenger Christine said his British Airways flight had been ready to leave when the pilot announced that they had been asked to stay for a while. Half an hour later, the passengers were told that Heathrow was closed and that another flight that had already been taught to the track had turned, leaving them trapped in the asphalt.
“The mood is quite relaxed on the plane, surprisingly. They have simply come to feed us,” said Christine, who refused to give his last name. But, he said, with a wedding in the United Kingdom to attend on Saturday: “I really hope we are not trapped until then!”
According to the Flightradar24 flight tracking website, more than 1350 flights that enter or leave Heathrow on Friday. He also said that 120 flights were in the air when the announcement arrived. They had to be diverted to other airports or return to their original location.
Thomas added that while the shortest national flights could go back, that is not an option for long -distance international flights. There are several other airports near London, including Gatwick Airport and Stansted airport, but they are probably “A capacity”, which means that deviant flights must go further to find an alternative place to land, as in Glasgow or Edimburg, he said.
And that could raise another problem. Those other airports, some of them smaller and smaller cost than Heathrow, are not equipped to handle the large number of deviant passengers approaching, he said.
As the authorities run to contain the fire and navigate the consequences, they will also face difficult questions, Thomas said, including why such a crucial trip and an economic center could not take advantage of a backup energy source.
Cause of unknown fire, authorities say
A transformer in an electrical substation in Hayes, a suburb of London located a few kilometers from the airport, caught on Thursday night, according to the London Fire Brigade.
The cause is not yet known, and firefighters were still working to extinguish the fire from Friday morning.
The brigade said it evacuated 150 people in the area. More than 16,000 homes lost energy, according to the Public Services provider Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.
The videos shared on social networks showed huge flames and smoke in the air early Friday.
Firefighters said they were called to the fire around 11.23 pm local time on Thursday and that the teams had been on stage throughout the night.
“As we go in the morning, the interruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area whenever possible,” said commissioner Pat Goulbourne in the Fire Brigade Declaration.
In his statement to CNN, the airport said: “We know that this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to ensure that we are working as hard as possible to solve the situation.”
Heathrow airport seemed to a large extent in the middle of the blackout, according to videos shared on social networks.
Scottish and Southern’s electricity networks said they are aware of a “generalized energy cut” in the suburbs of Hayes, Hounslow and its surroundings of London, near the airport. According to its website, unplanned interruption was affecting more than 16,000 homes.
Passengers are advised not to travel to Heathrow and must communicate with their airline to obtain more information, the airport said in his statement.
The shared videos on social networks showed Heathrow airport to a large extent in the middle of the blackout.
