Counter-terror police are main the investigation into the “unprecedented” electrical substation fireplace that has closed down London Heathrow, stopping greater than 1,300 flights, as engineers tried to revive energy to the airport on Friday.
Airways face days of disruption with lots of of 1000’s of scheduled passengers already unable to fly out and in of Europe’s busiest airport, after what ministers stated was an “unusual and unprecedented incident”.
London fireplace brigade was referred to as shortly after 11pm on Thursday to a hearth at {an electrical} substation in Hayes, west London, with energy additionally minimize to 1000’s of properties.
Greater than 70 firefighters tackled the blaze, which at 8am on Friday the brigade stated was below management, with greater than 20,000 litres of oil having caught fireplace in a transformer. Officers stated that regardless of the acrid odor, there was no air high quality hazard to the general public.
The reason for the fireplace is unknown, though police and safety sources indicated there was no rapid indication of foul play.
Downing Avenue urged “caution against speculating” about the reason for the fireplace, stating that it was untimely to determine the trigger whereas it was nonetheless partially burning.
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan police stated: “We are working with the London fire brigade to establish the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation. While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time. Given the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s counter-terrorism command is now leading inquiries.
“This is due to the specialist resources and capabilities within that command that can assist in progressing this investigation at pace to minimise disruption and identify the cause.”
Heathrow is considered a possible goal for terrorism or sabotage, incidences of which have been rising in recent times backed by state actors. Nationwide Grid stated substation fires have been “extraordinarily rare” and it was not capable of “rule anything in or out”.
It’s understood there are discussions inside Whitehall about whether or not a Cobra assembly is important, which might happen if the closure at Heathrow drags on for a second day. Downing Avenue wouldn’t say on Friday whether or not it was assured the airport would totally reopen by Saturday, saying it was “clearly a fast-moving situation”.
Greater than 1,350 flights had been scheduled on Friday to and from Heathrow, Britain’s greatest airport and one of many busiest on this planet. Energy was nonetheless minimize off to 2 of the airport’s 4 terminals, T2 and T4, by late morning.
Nationwide Grid stated at 2pm that the community had “been reconfigured to restore all customers impacted, including the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport that are connected to North Hyde”.
Heathrow was understood to be implementing backup methods and beginning to redirect energy to the affected areas, in a course of that might take many hours for assurance in safety-critical components of its operations.
The instantly cancelled or rerouted flights had capability for as much as 291,000 passengers, with a major proportion connecting onwards, in addition to carrying freight.
Airline operations around the globe will likely be affected, with the knock-on results anticipated to final a number of days.
In accordance with the web flight-tracking service Flightradar24, 120 flights to Heathrow have been within the air when the closure was introduced. Some arriving flights from Asia and Australia have been diverted to different airports round Britain and Europe whereas others coming from the US returned to their departure factors.
A Heathrow spokesperson stated: “To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 2359 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.”
British Airways, which operates simply over half of the flights from Heathrow, stated: “This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers and we’re working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond.”
The Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation stated it was “yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines”. Willie Walsh, Iata’s director basic, added: “How is it that critical infrastructure is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative? If that is the case then it is a clear planning failure by the airport.”
The UK’s greatest carriers based mostly at different airports, easyJet and Ryanair, stated they might be including additional capability to assist stranded passengers. EasyJet will fly larger planes on some key European routes and Ryanair has added further flights from Eire to London Stansted.
Nationwide rail and coach companies working to Heathrow have all been cancelled on Friday.
The UK power secretary, Ed Miliband, stated it was an “unusual and unprecedented incident”. He stated the federal government can be doing every part it might to revive energy to the airport, after provide strains have been modified to revive electrical energy to many of the 67,000 properties affected on Friday morning.
The transport secretary, Heidi Alexander, stated she had spoken with Heathrow’s chief government, Thomas Woldbye, and was “reassured they’re working tirelessly to reopen the airport as soon as possible”.
Alice Delahunty, the president of Nationwide Grid’s transmission enterprise, stated it had been “a very significant and serious incident, which is extraordinarily rare in our network” and that it was not doable to confirm any “rumours and speculation” over the reason for the fireplace.
She added: “We’re not in a position to rule anything in or out. Our focus has been getting homes and businesses back on supply safely. There will be a time for a full and thorough investigation, but the focus has been on restoring power.”
The hearth broken the substation’s main transformer, whereas the backup transformer sustained warmth injury throughout the blaze, Delahunty stated.
The London fireplace brigade assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne stated firefighters had labored “tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible”.
Emergency companies have been referred to as to the scene at 11.23pm on Thursday. The hearth pressured greater than 100 folks to evacuate. Firefighters led 29 folks from surrounding properties to security, and reported no casualties.
Whereas Heathrow has skilled vital disruption from exterior occasions such because the air site visitors management outage in August 2023 and the mass groundings throughout the Covid disaster, the final time the airport was totally closed for an prolonged interval was throughout heavy snowfall and freezing circumstances in December 2010, when 4,000 flights have been cancelled.
Heathrow is the best-connected airport on this planet, based on analysts OAG, serving about 230 locations. A file 83.9 million passengers used it final yr and it claims to be the most important single-site employer within the UK, with about 90,000 folks in whole working there.
Extra reporting by Jamie Grierson, Elias Visontay and Kate Lamb
