Britain’s Heathrow Airport will remain closed for over 24 hours, after a fire caused power outages in much of London, including the airport.
This seems to be Europe’s worst single-day aviation disruption since a volcanic ash cloud over Iceland grounded around 100,000 flights in 2010.
The first reports of this event came around 11 PM local time on Thursday the 20th of March. It appears that the fire broke out at an electrical substation, west of London, with fire and smoke being visible over large distances.
It is not clear if the fire and smoke affected visibility around Heathrow Airport directly. But this didn’t really matter, because the fire caused a complete power outage at the airport. Like most airports, Heathrow has a power backup for contingencies.
But for reasons that remain unclear, the catastrophic nature of the fire prevented this power backup system from operating. The airport had power for key safety systems, but not enough to keep terminals open. According to the authorities, there are efforts underway to either restore full backup power or establish another backup for the airport.
While fire crews were getting the blaze under control overnight, many aircraft were already in the air, heading for Heathrow. Multiple flights ultimately returned to their origin airports. But at least 120 flights had to divert to other airports in the UK, or elsewhere in Europe.
The Effects of the Fire on Heathrow and its Passengers
Before the fire, Heathrow would have handled 1,351 flights on Friday the 21st, amounting to 291,000 passenger seats. Cirium indicates that the number of affected flights could be much lower, at 669. But this still amounts to 145,836 passenger seats. That’s for Friday alone, and disruptions over the weekend remain highly likely.
Initial reports suggest that the fire’s intensity and duration were because 25,000 litres (6,600 US gallons) of cooling oil caught fire at the electrical substation. However, there were no indications that the fire and the disruption it caused at Heathrow were connected to “foul play”. Nonetheless, the severity of the event means that the UK’s counter-terrorism police are conducting an investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, stranded passengers around Heathrow may struggle to relocate elsewhere. Nearby hotels quickly reached capacity, with any remaining rooms selling for steep prices. Some airlines, like Ryanair, are adding flights to other London airports.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of airline executives and other stakeholders are asking how such a fire can cause disruption to a key airport like Heathrow. London’s biggest airport is a key hub for flights throughout Europe.
And on top of everything else, passengers on flights that have diverted to EU countries may lack necessary paperwork allowing them to leave the airport, if they wish to travel to the UK by other means.
UPDATE
Newer reports, as of 17:39 UTC, suggest that Heathrow is already able to reopen, slowly, after a fire caused a stop in operations. The authorities will prioritise repatriation of passengers and relocation of aircraft.
Heathrow authorities hope that the airport will return to full operational capacity on Saturday.
Petter and Ben hosted a LIVE reaction video on this matter, that you can now watch below:
