After 18 hours of shutdown following a large fire at a nearby electricity substation which led to a power cut, flight operations slowly resumed at United Kingdom's Heathrow Airport on Friday. Yesterday's inconvenience reportedly caused widespread cancellations and rerouting of flights stranding roughly 2,00,000 passengers.
"Due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying the airport, Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage. To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23h59 on 21 March. Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience", Heathrow Airport announced.
London Heathrow is one of the world's busiest airports and had a record 83.9 million passengers last year, with a plane landing or taking off around every 45 seconds. Friday's disruption was one of the most serious since the 2010 eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed clouds of ash into the atmosphere and shut Europe's airspace for days.
Flights Ops Resume At Heathrow
As power was restored after 18 long hours, a British Airways jet first touched down just before sunset on Friday after Heathrow lifted the closure. Later, more arrivals took place including a short flight from Manchester in northwest England. Moreover, a British Airways flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia also departed from Heathrow just before 9 pm.
As per The Associated Press, Heathrow Airport plans to operate full schedule on Saturday. However, aviation consultant Anita told AP that it would take several days to mobilize planes, cargo carriers, and crews and rebook passengers.
“It's not only about resuming with tomorrow's flights, it's the backlog and the implications that have taken place,” she said.
About The Fire Inciddent
As per reports, a substation in Hayes which is about about 1.5 miles away from the airport caught fire. Thousands of homes within the ambit of the affected area are facing power outage. Citing Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, PTI reported that power outage affected more than 16,300 homes.
Videos and images on social media show large flames and plumes of thick black smoke.
Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the substation.
Authorities said they found no evidence that it was suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the electrical distribution equipment at the substation.
What Caused The Fire?
It's too early to know for sure what sparked the blaze, but the Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives were leading the investigation because of their ability to find the cause quickly and because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.
The force said that "after initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious."
Heathrow said its backup power supply designed for emergencies worked as expected, but it wasn't enough to run the whole airport. It said it had no choice but to close the airport for most of the day.
