Huge fire closes UK’s Heathrow Airport, global flight schedules disrupted

Britain’s Heathrow Airport said it would be closed all of Friday after a huge fire at a nearby electrical substation wiped out power, disrupting flight schedules around the world.

The London Fire Brigade said around 70 firefighters were 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.

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.

The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was not known.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March,” Heathrow Airport said in a post on X, adding that passengers were advised not to travel to the airport.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, at least 120 inbound flights to Heathrow were having to divert to other airports, while 1,351 flights had been due to land and take off at Heathrow of Friday.

Industry experts said tourism, travel and trade would be further disrupted around the world, as flights will be cancelled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position.

British Airways itself had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday.

“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers, and we are working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond,” it said.

The fire forced planes to divert around the world.

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, D.C. rather than London.

Some flights from the U.S. were turning around mid-air and returning to their point of departure.

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

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. 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.”

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.

On the ground in London, a number of homes and businesses were without power. “Firefighters have led 29 people to safety from neighbouring properties, and as a precaution, a 200-metre cordon has been established, with around 150 people evacuated,” the fire brigade said.