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Heathrow Airport Closure: Everything We Know So Far
Following a fire at a power station, Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited, the owner and manager of London Heathrow Airport (LHR), has closed the airport for at least the day, prompting travel chaos worldwide.
While the London Fire Brigade (LFB) pointed out that the fire was almost out, it is unclear whether the airport will reopen before midnight on March 21. Here is the latest information about the airport’s closure.
Fire at a power station and counter-terrorism investigation
In a short statement, Heathrow Airport said that due to a fire at an electrical substation supplying electricity for London-Heathrow, the airport is “experiencing a significant power outage.” As a result, the company decided to close down the airport until at least 23:59 local time (UTC +0) on March 21.
“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologize for the inconvenience. ”
The LFB elaborated on the fire in updates on its website, saying that at 23:23 local time on March 20, it received over 200 calls about a fire at a high- voltage substation near London-Heathrow.
“The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 liters of cooling oil fully alight. This created a major hazard due to the still live high voltage equipment and the nature of an oil-fuelled fire. ”
According to LFB, the fire was declared a major incident at 00:42 on March 21, initially leaving 67,000 households without power. In an update at 12:50, LFB detailed that over 5,000 homes and London-Heathrow have no electricity.
“As of the most recent update, approximately ten percent remains alight, and we are working closely with SSE to safely resolvethe incident. [. . . ] Ten fire engines,two Bulk Foam Units, and one High Volume Pump were on scene atthe peak ofthe incident – this equates to approximatelyseventy LFB personnel. ”
In a statement, London Metropolitan Police (Met) said that giventhe substation’s location and importance,its “Counterterrorism Command is now leading inquiries. ”
More than1,000 canceled flights
Meanwhile,according to data Flightradar24 provided to Simple Flying,1,350 arrivals and departures have been canceled,with a further120 flights diverting from London-Heathrow returning to their origin airports or other locations in sometimes relatively close proximity.
London Gatwick Airport (LGW) and London Luton Airport (LTN) issued statementson X,formerly known as Twitter,both informing passengers that airports’ management are aware of disruptions at London-Heathrow assuring them that operations are continuing as normal.
According to travel data company OAG,London-Heathrow was fourth-busiest airport in2024 with over51.5 million seats scheduled from/to during year.
Meanwhile data from aviation analytics company Cirium’s Diio Mi airline planning tool showed that on March21665 and669 flights were scheduled depart arrive British totaling290930 seats.
Some diversions included Airbus A380 landing alternate across world many Europe including Frankfurt Airport FRA London-Gatwick Manchester Airport MAN Munich MUC others welcoming double-deckers.
Reverberating impact
However while far fewer departing arriving March22 namely271677 impact total closure loss electricity could reverberate into other days.
As pointed out by Cirium hours-long affect airlines operations since aircraft crew passengers supposed limited spare carriers struggle plug gaps networks.
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