A British Airways jet touched down at Heathrow Airport late Friday, nearly 18 hours after a fire at a nearby electrical substation triggered a power outage that forced Europe’s busiest airport to shut down. Operations resumed just before sunset, following a massive disruption that impacted hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world.
FlightRadar24 reported that at least 1,350 flights were affected by the shutdown, with ripple effects expected to continue for days as airlines scramble to rebook passengers and recalibrate their schedules.
While the cause of the fire remains undetermined, authorities have found no evidence of foul play. However, the Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism unit is now leading the investigation, citing its specialized expertise in incidents involving key national infrastructure. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband reiterated that there is currently no indication the fire was deliberate.
Witnesses in west London described hearing a thunderous explosion, followed by a fireball and thick plumes of smoke as flames engulfed the substation near the airport. The blaze took over seven hours to bring under control.
At the time the closure was announced, around 120 flights were already airborne, many of which were forced to turn back or divert to other airports, including Gatwick, Paris’s Charles de Gaulle, and Shannon in Ireland.
The disruption comes at a time when Heathrow had just recorded its busiest January ever, handling more than 6.3 million passengers—a year-on-year increase of over five percent. Despite the scale of Friday’s events, officials noted it was less severe than the 2010 volcanic ash cloud from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull eruption, which grounded trans-Atlantic travel for months.
Heathrow officials said the airport’s backup power systems did activate but were insufficient to keep full operations running, prompting a complete shutdown. “We expect significant disruption in the days ahead, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until it fully reopens,” a statement from the airport warned.
The incident has also sparked broader criticism about the country’s preparedness for emergencies or possible attacks, raising questions about how a single fire was able to bring one of the world’s most critical air travel hubs to a standstill.
With inputs from AP