Heathrow Airport in Britain said that it would close all Friday after a huge fire in a nearby electrical substation erased the power, disrupting flight schedules worldwide.
The London Fire Brigade said that about 70 firefighters were approaching the combustion west of London, which led to a massive interruption in Heathrow, the busiest in Europe and the fifth airport in the world.
Large flames of orange and black smoke plumes firing in the sky from a power station about three kilometers from the airport. It took the firefighters about seven hours to control the combustion, said the London Fire Brigade. Early in the morning, the largest Britain’s largest airport roads were largely deserted unless some passengers moved away with luggage.
« Our fire researchers will begin research and we will continue to work closely with our partners to minimize them
Interruptions and support the community, « said the Fire Brigade.
The fire, which was reported just after 23 hours on Thursday, forced aircraft to divert to airports throughout Britain.
And Europe, while many long -distance flights simply returned to their starting point.
Cause of the fire is unclear
Heathrow said that the airport, which had to manage 1,351 flights during the day, flying up to 291,000 passengers, would be
Keep -closed until midnight as I was experiencing a major interruption.
Heathrow is usually opened for flights daily at 6 am due to night flight restrictions.
About 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned and others diverted to Gatwick airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris or Shannon Airport in Ireland, showed tracking services.
French airline Air France canceled eight and Heathrow flights to Heathrow, while Dutch airline KLM said it canceled three return flights.
British Airways himself had 341 flights scheduled to land in Heathrow on Friday.
« This would clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers, and we are working as quickly as possible to update -in their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond, » he said.
The cause of the fire was not yet known.
The Minister of Energy, Ed Miband, said that the « catastrophic » fire had prevented the power backup system from working and that engineers worked to deploy a third backup mechanism.
« With any incident like this we want to understand why it happened and what happens if any lesson has for our infrastructure, » he told Sky News.
You want to divert around the world
Industry experts said that tourism, travel and trade would be more altered worldwide, as flights will be canceled or delayed because the planes are out of position.
« Heathrow is one of the leading cores in the world, » said Ian Petchenik, spokesman for the flights flight monitoring website. « This is going to interrupt the operations of airlines around the world. »
The fire forced aircraft to divert around the world.
Travel experts said that the interruption would spread far beyond Heathrow.
« Heathrow is one of the leading nuclei in the world, » said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24. « This is going to interrupt the operations of airlines around the world. »
Choreography networks carefully with airlines depends that aircraft and crews are in specific places at specific times. Dozens of aerial carriers will need to reconfigure their networks to move aircraft and crew.
« The other question is: » What will the airlines do to deal with the receding passengers? « Said travel analyst Henry Harteveldt, with atmosphere Research Group. » It will be a couple of chaotic days. «
Qantas Airways sent his Perth flight to Paris, a New York United Airlines flight headed for Shannon, Ireland and a San Francisco United Airlines flight was due to Earth in Washington, DC more than in London.
Some passengers went on social media. Adrian Spender, who works for the British retailer Tesco, said in a publication in X that he was in an Airbus A380 that he had been addressed to Heathrow.
« #Heathrow is no idea where we are going. Currently on Austria. »
Heathrow, and the other major London airports, have been affected by interruptions in recent years, more recently by an automated door failure and an air traffic system, both in 2023.
Heathrow was in January more in the record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, more than five percent compared to the same period last year. January was also the eleventh consecutive month that promised more than 200,000 passengers a day, and the airport quoted the trans-anthlantic journey as a key collaborator.
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