LONDON: British Airways became the first carrier to resume operations at London’s Heathrow Airport, following an 18-hour disruption due to a devastating electrical substation fire at Europe’s busiest aviation hub.
Power restoration enabled the British Airways aircraft to land before sunset on Friday after the airport lifted restrictions. Additional arrivals followed, including a flight from Manchester.
A British Airways service, to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, departed just before 9 pm local time (Saturday, 2:30 am in India). The airline scheduled eight long-haul flights for Friday evening, with full operations planned for Saturday.
The outage
The power outage impacted Heathrow and neighbouring residential areas. According to FlightRadar 24, at least 1,350 flights were affected.
The incident led to extensive flight cancellations, routing complications and affected roughly 200,000 travellers. Approximately 120 aircraft were airborne when the closure was announced. Some returned to their departure points while others landed at alternative airports including Gatwick (London), Charles de Gaulle (Paris) and Shannon Airport (Ireland).
It began shortly before midnight on Thursday at a substation located 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) from Heathrow. Firefighters spent about seven hours controlling the flames. The London Fire Brigade deployed 10 engines and approximately 70 firefighters, evacuating 150 local residents. While 67,000 customers lost power initially, most services were restored by morning.
This disruption stands as one of the most significant since the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull volcano eruption in Iceland, which caused extensive European airspace closures.
Heathrow, which handled 83.9 million (8.39 crore) passengers last year, ranks among the world’s premier international airports. Standard flight operations there typically commence at 6 am due to night flight restrictions.
‘Non-suspicious’
The Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism unit is leading investigations due to their rapid response capabilities and the substation’s proximity to vital infrastructure, though they confirmed the incident appears “non-suspicious.”
Heathrow’s emergency power system functioned as intended but proved insufficient for full operations. CEO Thomas Woldbye defended the airport’s emergency preparations, describing the situation as “unprecedented.”
The incident prompted criticism regarding Britain’s infrastructure resilience. Alan Mendoza from the Henry Jackson Society highlighted concerns about national infrastructure protection.
Tom Wells, speaking for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, acknowledged the need for a “thorough investigation” to prevent similar disruptions.
