Heathrow Airport forced to close after fire at substation causing global travel chaos

by Mick the Ram

A fire at an electrical substation 2 miles from London’s Heathrow Airport, has caused global chaos after it was forced to close for the entirety of Friday 21 March.

The high-voltage facility at the west London suburb of Hayes, was subject of a major explosion and subsequent fire at around 11.30pm the previous night, causing a major power outage at the airport.

Thankfully, nobody was injured, but London Fire Brigade (LFB) worked throughout the night to bring the situation under control, nevertheless part of the transformer continued to burn more than 12 hours later, with the cause of the blaze not yet determined.

At Heathrow, which sees a plane land or take off every 45 seconds, an airport spokesperson said they had no choice but to close until at least 23:59 on the 21st to maintain the safety of passengers and staff.

At least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow and as many as 290,000 travelers are known to be affected just today, but the knock-on effect will be much, much greater.

Flights due to land at or take off from Heathrow were either diverted to other airports in places such as Dublin, Amsterdam, Munich, Frankfurt, Madrid, Lyon and other European cities, or cancelled completely.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been left stranded at airports overseas and planes from the US, the Caribbean and Asian countries have had to turn around in mid-air.

Local residents were forced to evacuate their homes with one witness explaining how the “whole ground shook” after a huge bang caused an “unbelievably scary” situation.

Counter terrorist police are investigating whether sabotage played a part.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest aviation hub, handling just under 84 million passengers a year – nearly double the next busiest airport in the UK – and around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day.

Global chaos

This unprecedented event appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as a substation itself, leading to chaotic scenes and impacted the entire globe.

Police have launched a major incident investigation into the cause of the fire, with authorities adding that at this early stage nothing can be ruled out, including an act of terrorism.

Airlines severely hit

Some flights inbound to Heathrow were able to land at alternative UK airports, including Gatwick and Luton (for the lucky ones), but others were sent across Europe.

It is reported that the airlines most affected were British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines, Air Canada, and Delta, with each suffering multiple cancellations and diversions.

One of world’s busiest

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers travelling through – a figure more than 5 per cent up for the same period last year.

Those numbers demonstrate just how much even a one-day closure will disrupt airlines’ operations around the world.

Questions raised

Heathrow was in actual fact the busiest airport in Europe, the fourth-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic and the second busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic in 2024.

Therefore, the need to shut down the airport due to the loss of just one electrical substation raises major questions for Heathrow and the Government.

It is the biggest disruption for UK aviation since the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud grounded and diverted flights in April and May 2010, costing airlines an estimated £130million every day.

Witness accounts

Almost 5,000 homes remain without power and 150 people were evacuated from surrounding properties.

Local resident Vaneca Sinclair, said: “I was about 100 yards from the explosion; suddenly there was this huge bang and the house just shook. I thought maybe someone had crashed into the wall or something and then opened the front door and I had a look and there were just these flames everywhere down at the bottom of the road.”

Matthew Muirhead was working a night shift when he noticed smoke rising from the substation. “We noticed smoke coming over the trees and heard sirens, we then saw a bright flash of white and all the lights in town went out.”

How could this be allowed to happen?

Julian Bray, one of the UK’s leading aviation experts said: “We are all amazed that Heathrow does not have a viable standby independent of the grid emergency power supply but relies on the National Grid.

“It’s not as if Heathrow is short of money – it has a substantial war chest for building the third runway.”

Bosses are expected to be hauled before Parliament to explain how this could be allowed to happen.