‘A contained version of 9/11’: London’s Heathrow Airport closed, over 1,300 flights affected

A massive fire at a nearby substation forced the UK authorities to close down London’s Heathrow Airport on Friday. Hundreds of thousands passengers faced flight cancellations at Europe’s busiest airport, with at least 1,350 flights getting affected due to the closure of the Heathrow Airport.

A reputed aviation consultant compared the situation with the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US in 2001 and the Icelandic volcanic eruption of 2010, when the European airspace had to be closed down.

John Strickland, a noted aviation consultant, says it will take several days for global airline travel to recover from a daylong closure of Heathrow Airport.

“We’re talking about several days’ worth of disruption to get the planes recovered and start using them again to move planned and disrupted passengers,” said Strickland adding that the disruption is like “a contained version of 9/11 or, to an extent, the Icelandic volcanic eruption”.

“I remembered seeing on those occasions — particularly more so on 9/11 — it happened so quickly and then US airspace was closed, they were turning back aircraft and holding planes. That’s the parallel I would make. Heathrow being such a busy airport and full, there’s no kind of wriggle room for getting out of these kinds of things,” he said.

Some 120 flights heading to Heathrow were in the air when the closure was announced, FlightRadar24 said.

The airport operator said in a statement on its website that Heathrow was experiencing a significant power outage, adding that it would be closed until just before midnight on Friday (2359 GMT).

“Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens,” the airport operator said.

London Fire Brigade said there had been a “significant” fire at a substation in Hayes, a town in the London borough of Hillingdon.

“The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimise disruption,” said Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne. “This is a major incident, and our firefighters are working hard in tough conditions to control the fire quickly.”

The fire brigade department said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene, while around 150 people had been evacuated from nearby properties.

A Qantas flight from Perth was diverted to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle, while a United Airlines flight from New York was rerouted to Shannon, Ireland.

Europe’s busiest airport

Heathrow Airport is Europe’s busiest airport and handles more than 80 million passengers a year.

Air India issues advisory

Air India issued an advisory for its passengers and announced disruptions to its operations at London Heathrow Airport (LHR) following the power outage.

As a result of the outage, Air India’s flight AI129 from Mumbai to Heathrow is returning to Mumbai, while AI161 from Delhi has been diverted to Frankfurt. Additionally, all remaining flights to and from Heathrow, including AI111 scheduled for the morning of 21 March, have been cancelled, the airline said in a statement.

The airline has assured passengers that updates on the resumption of services will be provided as soon as more information becomes available. However, flights to London Gatwick remain unaffected.