Cliff Notes
- Heathrow Airport has resumed limited operations following a substantial fire at a nearby electrical substation, which disrupted travel for approximately 200,000 passengers and led to over 1,000 flight cancellations.
- The fire, now deemed non-suspicious by the Metropolitan Police, caused a significant power outage and raised concerns about the airport’s operational resilience, with the CEO acknowledging it as one of the most serious incidents in the airport’s history.
- Full flight operations are expected to resume on Saturday, with airlines beginning to restart services and authorities lifting restrictions on overnight flights to manage congestion.
Heathrow Airport reopens for some flights after fire | UK News
Heathrow Airport has reopened for a limited number of flights after a large fire at a nearby electrical substation disrupted travel for around 200,000 passengers.
Counter-terror police were leading the investigation into the cause of the blaze, which triggered a “significant power outage” that led to more than 1,000 flights to and from the airport being cancelled.
Heathrow’s boss apologised to passengers, describing the disruption “as big as it gets for our airport” and admitting “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
Follow live updates on Heathrow shutdown
In an update on Friday evening, the Metropolitan Police said the cause of the fire is believed to be non-suspicious, while the London Fire Brigade (LFB) announced its investigation will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow is expected to run a full schedule on Saturday.
The proximity of Heathrow to the electrical substation
The fire that caused the power outage is at the North Hyde substation in Hayes, about 1.5 miles to the north of the west London airport.
LFB received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday.
Heathrow initially announced the airport would be closed until 11.59pm on Friday but later said repatriation flights for passengers diverted to other airports in Europe would resume on Friday evening.