Heathrow Airport in London was plunged into chaos after a fire at an electrical substation shut down operations at one of Europe’s busiest air hubs, forcing the airport to cancel or divert more than 1,000 flights Friday and removing a global linchpin of air travel.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye described the disruption as “unprecedented,” telling reporters Friday that the airport had lost power equal to that of a midsize city, and that although a backup transformer worked as it should, there had not been enough power for the entire airport.
Some flights resumed late Friday. But Woldbye said, “We expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation as a normal day,” by Saturday.
Later Friday, the Metropolitan Police in London said, “After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing.” The police said counterterrorism officials would lead the investigation into the cause of the blaze, which broke out Thursday night at an electrical substation northeast of Heathrow.
It was too early Friday to calculate the precise cost of the disruption. But the outage raised questions about the resilience of Britain’s largest airport and why it appeared to be so reliant on a single electrical substation.
Residents of the Hayes neighborhood near the airport described hearing two loud bangs and seeing “a massive ball of flame” shoot into the sky Thursday night. Minutes later, the airport said it was shutting down all air traffic, incoming flights were diverted, and passengers at Heathrow were sent home. Nearby residents were also evacuated.
By Friday morning, roads around the power station were cordoned off, and a helicopter hovered above. An odd stillness had descended on Heathrow. The runways were empty, check-in desks were quiet, digital flight-information screens were blank and passageways were dimly lit by emergency lighting. It was a lifeless calm not seen even during the early panicked weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.
Britain’s National Grid said Friday afternoon that it had reconfigured its network to partly restore power at Heathrow on an interim basis. The substation held 25,000 liters of cooling oil, which fueled the large blaze and made it too difficult to extinguish, the London Fire Brigade said Friday. The brigade said about 5% of the fire was still burning by Friday evening.
