Heathrow airport closed: greater than 1,000 flights affected after substation hearth causes energy outage – stay

We’re additionally getting one other line from UK power secretary Ed Miliband doing the morning media spherical: he has advised the LBC Radio that “there is no suggestion that there is foul play.”

You might ponder whether that we all know why this occurred. For the time being, the main focus is on restoring the ability, we don’t but have any understanding or actual understanding of what brought about … the fireplace.

He was then pressed additional if he can rule out foul play, to which he responded:

I’ve no… There’s no suggestion that there’s foul play.

Including:

That’s, I imply, the dialog I’ve had is with the Nationwide Grid, the chief govt of the Nationwide Grid, and definitely that’s what he mentioned to me.

London hearth brigade has now confirmed that the fireplace in Hayes is “now under control,” including that the emergency providers “will remain on scene throughout the day.”

“Our fire investigators will begin their investigation & we will continue working closely with our partners to minimise disruption and support the community,” they mentioned in a social media replace.

An announcement on their web site confirmed the fireplace was introduced below management by 6:28 GMT, and added that “The Brigade’s fire investigators are working closely with the Metropolitan Police Service on the investigation into the cause of the fire.”

UK power secretary Ed Miliband appeared on BBC One within the final half hour, the place he known as the fireplace as “catastrophic,” and defined that it additionally affected “the potential backup generation” for the airport.

He mentioned:

The [National] Grid is doing every thing they will to revive energy as rapidly as they will to Heathrow.

Heathrow is saying that the airport shall be closed at present till midnight, as , however the grid are doing every thing they will to hunt to revive energy.

My understanding from Grid is 100,000 houses had been with out energy because of this fireplace in a single day.

The determine they gave to me a short while in the past was that that’s down now to 4,000 however clearly it is a fast-paced scenario.

UK transport secretary Heidi Alexander has simply commented on the Heathrow closure, urging passengers to not journey to the airport.

She mentioned:

I’m receiving updates on the fast-moving scenario at Heathrow Airport.

I’m grateful to emergency providers responding to the fireplace, and Nationwide Grid for working to revive energy to the airport and houses.

I’d urge passengers to not journey to the airport, and speak to their airline.

London Stansted airport remains to be open however has not but obtained any requests for diverted flights. A spokesperson mentioned: “London Stansted is currently operating as normal, we have capacity for a small number of diverts but as yet we haven’t received any requests.”

Extra pictures from round Hayes are coming in:

Scandinavian Airways SAS mentioned it has been affected by Heathrow’s closure.

“All our 12 round trips are so far cancelled to and from London Heathrow as the airport is currently closed,” it mentioned, as reported by Reuters.

Elias Visontay

One other replace from Elias Visontay, our transport and concrete affairs reporter in Sydney who studies that Qantas will bus displaced passengers from Paris to London after a number of of its flights had been compelled to divert as a result of closure of Heathrow airport.

On Friday, Qantas’s Singapore-London QF1 and continuous Perth-London QF9 flights landed at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport within the early hours of the morning, native time, after the substation hearth.

A Qantas spokesperson mentioned passengers would now be transported to London on buses.

“Our Singapore-London and Perth-London services were diverted to Paris today, with buses arranged to take customers on to London,” they mentioned.

Qantas’ QF10 flight from London returning to Perth has been cancelled for Friday, with clients to be accommodated on different flights. Friday’s QF2, from London to Singapore, may even possible be affected.

The Nationwide Grid UK has issued the next assertion by way of social media.

“A fire at North Hyde substation in West London has damaged equipment, leading to a loss of power supply in the area. We are working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible and will provide an update as soon as we can.”

The Hayes hearth has compelled planes to divert or be cancelled world wide.

British Airways itself had 341 flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on Friday.

“This will clearly have a significant impact on our operation and our customers, and we are working as quickly as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond,” it mentioned.

In the meantime, all Virgin Atlantic flights arriving and departing flights from Heathrow are cancelled till noon on 21 March, the airline mentioned.

What began off as a fireplace at a electrical substation in Hayes, West London, has brought about Heathrow, one of many world’s busiest airports, to shut till midnight on Friday. The substation provides energy to the foremost aviation hub.

In case you are simply tuning in, or waking up within the UK, here’s what you have to know:

• Within the early hours of Friday morning Heathrow airport introduced that the airport could be closed till midnight on Friday attributable to a “significant power outage” attributable to a substation hearth.

• The shutdown occurred simply hours earlier than the worldwide journey hub was attributable to open, forcing at the very least 120 flights that had been already within the air to divert, in response to Flightradar24.

• A spokesperson for the airport has advised passengers to not journey to the airport “under any circumstances” and warned that “significant disruption” is predicted within the coming days.

• Journey specialists say the Heathrow closure can have a world influence, with dozens of air carriers compelled to hurriedly reconfigure their networks to maneuver planes and crews round because of this.

• Already, scores of flights are being diverted to different airports, with Qantas Airways sending its flight from Perth to Paris and a United Airways New York flight heading to Shannon, Eire. Some flights from the US had been turning round mid-air and returning to their level of departure. A United Airways flight from San Francisco was attributable to land in Washington, D.C. somewhat than London. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic diverted flights to close by Gatwick.

• In keeping with Flightradar24, greater than 1,000 flights shall be impacted by the sudden closure of Heathrow.

• On the bottom, the Hayes hearth can be inflicting important disruption with energy outages impacting greater than 16,300 houses. Footage posted to social media confirmed large flames and enormous plumes of smoke coming from the substation facility. The fireplace brigade mentioned practically 200 calls had been obtained in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.

The closure of Heathrow is being felt world wide. In Singapore’s Changi airport a departure board exhibits an Air Portugal flight to Heathrow has been cancelled.

Heathrow closure ‘catastrophic for air site visitors’ says aviation professional

Elias Visontay

Elias Visontay, our transport and concrete affairs reporter, has spoken to an aviation professional who says that airways world wide will now be grappling with a “logistical nightmare”.

Neil Hansford, head of the Sydney-based Strategic Aviation Options consultancy, mentioned the closure of Heathrow for a day was “unheard of” for the trade.

Whereas London’s different airports, similar to Gatwick and Stansted, would historically take diverted flights, Heathrow’s scale means different airports in and close to London would not have the capability to soak up all of its operations.

“These airports can’t take anything close to the volume of Heathrow’s five terminals, where there’s an arrival every minute,” mentioned Hansford.

Hansford mentioned that even when airports similar to Amsterdam’s Schiphol and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle and Orly may deal with diverted arrivals, it was unclear what they might do from there to return to their flight schedules.

“If you land in Paris or Amsterdam, or even Manchester, how are you going to get your passengers and crew to London, and how are your outbound passengers and replacement crew going to get to the other city? Trains cannot do all of that moving. Every airline will be facing this problem today. Airlines base their staff in certain cities they fly to, but they may not have any staff in the cities they have to divert to.”

“Beyond positioning the crew, fuel will be a huge problem,” he added. “Airlines plan to refuel at Heathrow which has a huge supply, but other airports that accept diversions likely won’t be able to refuel all of these extra planes.”

Hansford mentioned that even when Heathrow resumed operations by Saturday, the cascading flight disruptions would ripple by means of international aviation schedules for days, if not longer.

“It’s catastrophic for air traffic,” he mentioned.

Gatwick airport accepting diverted flights

Elias Visontay

Most of the Heathrow-bound flights have diverted to London’s Gatwick, as airports round the UK and Europe brace for an inflow of surprising passengers.

An announcement from a London Gatwick spokesperson mentioned: “We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required. Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today.”

London Gatwick has to date accepted seven diverted flights initially scheduled to land at Heathrow, together with flights from Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape City and Doha.

In the meantime, different flights have diverted to Paris, amongst different cities.

Agence France-Presse has put collectively some information about Heathrow.

The airport handles greater than than 80 million passengers a 12 months and the operator says there are round 1,300 takeoffs or landings a day.

In January, the federal government gave permission for Heathrow to construct a 3rd runway – which could possibly be prepared by 2035 – after years of authorized wrangling introduced on by complaints from native residents.

5 main airports serve the capital and cities close by.

However capability is stretched, particularly at Heathrow whose two runways every measure virtually 4 kilometres in size, whereas the airport covers a complete space 12.3 sq. kilometres.

The airport opened in 1946 as London Airport earlier than being renamed Heath Row, a hamlet demolished two years earlier to make method for the development.

Located 25km (15 miles) west of central London, the current Heathrow serves 200 locations in additional than 80 nations, with passengers gaining access to 4 terminals.

Amongst its major flight locations final 12 months had been Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York.