The facility lower has thrown airline schedules around the globe into disarray as a whole lot of flights are cancelled or compelled to divert.
Round 70 firefighters had been tackling the blaze on Friday morning and about 150 folks had been evacuated from close by buildings.
The hearth was introduced below management by 8am and an investigation is now wanting into its trigger.
Here’s what we all know concerning the difficulty.
Aeroplanes are grounded on Friday
Reuters
Why is Heathrow Airport closed?
The airport, which is equipped by the substation, mentioned it was additionally affected by the facility outage.
Power secretary Ed Miliband mentioned the fireplace “seems to have knocked out a back-up generator in addition to the substation itself”.
Pat Goulbourne of London Fireplace Brigade mentioned at round 8am that the fireplace was “below management” and an investigation was happening.
Scottish and Southern Electrical energy Networks tweeted that there was a large-scale energy outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the encircling areas affecting greater than 16,300 houses.
Based on the facility firm’s web site, authorities aimed to revive energy by 3pm on Friday.
What number of flights have been disrupted?
Passengers are being warned to count on disruption for a number of days, and lots of planes and flight crews are within the unsuitable location.
On-line flight monitoring service Flightradar24 mentioned the closure would have an effect on greater than 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow on Friday. This contains 679 scheduled to land and 678 as a result of take off from the airport.
It mentioned 120 flights to the airport had been within the air when the closure was introduced.
The hearth in Hayes
Courtesy of X consumer @chrisjbrogan
When might flights be restored to and from Heathrow?
On the time of writing Heathrow shouldn’t be certain when the facility could also be reliably restored.
A Heathrow spokesperson mentioned: “Heathrow is experiencing a major energy outage throughout the airport as a result of a big hearth at a close-by electrical substation. While hearth crews are responding to the incident, we don’t have readability on when energy could also be reliably restored.
“To take care of the security of our passengers and colleagues, now we have no selection however to shut Heathrow till 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We count on important disruption over the approaching days and passengers mustn’t journey to the airport below any circumstances till the airport reopens.
“We’ll present an replace when extra info on the resumption of operations is offered. We all know this shall be disappointing for passengers and we need to reassure that we’re working as laborious as doable to resolve the state of affairs.”
Cops close to the scene of the substation
AFP through Getty Photos
The place are flights being diverted to? Can passengers board elsewhere?
On-line monitoring companies confirmed flights being diverted to Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Eire’s Shannon Airport.
A lot of flights had been additionally rotated and returned to airports in Canada and the USA.
Gatwick Airport accepted seven diverted flights from areas together with Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape City and Doha that had been initially destined for Heathrow.
Shannon Airport in Co Clare accepted six diversions from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Aviation guide John Strickland mentioned the closure of Heathrow for a whole day is “a large dislocation to should get well from”.
He added: “As soon as an plane is within the unsuitable place with the crew, should you’re away from dwelling you do not have one other crew to all of a sudden deliver the airplane and the passengers again. You have to wait till that crew has taken its relaxation, which is at all times required after an obligation interval.
“We’re speaking about a number of days’ value of disruption to get the planes recovered and begin utilizing them once more to maneuver deliberate and disrupted passengers.”
He likened the disruption to what occurred after the September 11 terrorist assaults in 2001, when flights had been grounded throughout the US.
He mentioned: “It is a contained model of 9/11”.
Can passengers get compensation?
Rory Boland, editor of journal Which? Journey, mentioned affected passengers should not entitled to compensation however airways ought to present help corresponding to in a single day lodging if required and re-routing bookings, together with with rival carriers from different airports.
