Airlines question Heathrow readiness after shutdown sparks global flight chaos

[LONDON] Britain’s Heathrow Airport was shut on Friday (Mar 21) after a huge fire at a nearby substation knocked out its power, stranding passengers around the world and angering airlines who questioned how such crucial infrastructure could collapse.

Huge orange flames and plumes of smoke shot into the sky around 11pm on Mar 20, as a blaze engulfed an electrical substation in Hayes, west London, cutting the power supply and back-up system for Europe’s busiest and the world’s fifth-busiest airport.

Airline experts said the last time European airports experienced a disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.

The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds.

“You would think they would have significant back-up power,” one top executive from a European airline told Reuters.

The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was not known, but that 25,000 litres of cooling oil in the transformer had caught fire. It had brought the blaze under control by the early morning with the transformer doused in white firefighting foam.

Energy Minister Ed Miliband said it did not appear to be foul play.

Heathrow had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Mar 21, flying up to 291,000 passengers.

The closure forced flights to divert to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights simply returned to their point of departure.

Passengers stranded in London and facing the prospect of days of disruptions were scrambling to make alternate travel arrangements.

“When we first came here, (it was) very exciting and hopeful,” said Beau Mahr, 21 from the US state of Iowa. “Now that we have to wait, it’s kind of stressful.”

Industry experts warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the visa paperwork to leave the airport.

Global flight schedules will also be affected more broadly as aircraft and crews will now be out of position, forcing carriers to rapidly reconfigure their networks.

Prices at hotels around Heathrow also leapt, with booking sites offering rooms for £500 (S$860), roughly five times the normal price levels.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information,” Heathrow said, adding that the airport would be shut until midnight on Mar 21 (8am on Mar 22, Singapore time). “We apologise for the inconvenience.”

The airport said in its latest update on Mar 21 that it still did not know when power would be restored, adding that it would provide further information whenever possible.

Chaos ahead

Airline executives, electrical engineers and passengers questioned how Britain’s gateway to the world could be forced to close by one fire, however large.

Pictures on social media showed the airport terminal in near darkness during the night.

Experts in power supply said the type of fire that erupted overnight was extremely rare, adding that the whole substation likely had to be shut down to fight the blaze.

But they added that there should be sufficient alternative supplies to get everyone back on-line quickly.

“We can be fairly confident they will be able to restore by tomorrow,” said Nicholas Rigby, a commercial engineer at NRG Management Consultancy.

Miliband said the “catastrophic” fire had prevented the power backup system from working and that engineers were working to deploy a third backup mechanism.

“There was a backup generator but that was also affected by the fire which gives a sense of how unusual and unprecedented it was,” he told Sky News.

“With any incident like this we will want to understand why it happened and what if any lessons it has for our infrastructure.”

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 DC rather than London.

Seven United Airlines flights returned to their airport of origin or to other airports and all Mar 21 flights to London Heathrow are being cancelled, a spokesperson said.

At least 13 flights between Singapore and London were cancelled or diverted to airports in Germany’s Frankfurt and French capital Paris.

Singapore Airlines’ flight SQ318, which was supposed to depart from Singapore at 12.45pm on Mar 21, was cancelled. Flight SQ308, which departed Singapore earlier at about 9.20am, turned back to Changi Airport and landed around 4.25pm.

“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.”

British Airways, the biggest carrier at Heathrow, had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on Mar 21.

Britain’s Gatwick Airport said it would accept some flights from Heathrow.

“It’s going to be a chaotic couple of days.” said travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt with Atmosphere Research Group.

Qantas told The Straits Times that flight QF1 is on its way to London and has been diverted to Paris. The airline has arranged buses to take customers for an estimated nine-hour-long ride to London.

Flights QF2 and QF10 scheduled to depart Heathrow Airport for Changi Airport on Mar 21 are also likely to be impacted. Qantas added that it is closely monitoring the situation and will contact customers directly if their flight is affected.

The power outage that led to the complete closure of Heathrow was a “clear planning failure” by the air hub, the head of airline industry trade association Iata, Willie Walsh, said.

“How is it that critical infrastructure – of national and global importance – is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative. If that is the case – as it seems – then it is a clear planning failure by the airport,” the Iata director general said on X.

On the ground in London, a number of homes and businesses were without power.

British utility firm Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on its website that an “unplanned outage” had left more than 16,000 homes without power in the area.

“Firefighters have led 29 people to safety from neighbouring properties, and as a precaution, a 200m cordon has been established, with around 150 people evacuated,” the fire brigade said.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night.”

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.

A Heathrow spokesperson told Reuters in an email that there was no clarity on when power would be restored, and they expected significant disruption over the coming days.

Heathrow handles more than than 80 million passengers a year and the operator says there are around 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.

It opened in 1946 as London Airport before being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make way for the construction.

Situated 25km west of central London, the present Heathrow serves 200 destinations in more than 80 countries.

Among its main flight destinations in 2024 were Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York. THE STRAITS TIMES, REUTERS, AFP