Heathrow fire that left 200,000 passengers stranded under urgent investigation

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Heathrow’s CEO has broken his silence on the investigation ordered by the government into the fire, which caused huge disruption yesterday. 

Thomas Woldbye welcomed the news, adding: ‘We will support every effort to understand the causes and impacts of yesterday’s off-airport incident.

‘We are committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation to help strengthen the airport’s future resilience.’

Energy secretary Ed Miliband has ordered the National Energy System Operator to ‘urgently investigate’ the power outage that shut Heathrow on Friday.

‘We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,’ he said.

‘That is why, working with Ofgem, I have today commissioned the National Energy System Operator to carry out an investigation into this specific incident and to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure, both now and in the future.

‘The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow.’

The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious.

Meanwhile, the London Fire Brigade is focusing its investigation on the electrical distribution equipment.

Air India is the latest airline flying to and from Heathrow to confirm that things should be a lot smoother today.

‘Today’s flight AI111 was on schedule and other flights, to and from London, are expected to operate as per schedule. AI161 of 21 March, which was diverted to Frankfurt, is expected to leave Frankfurt at 14:05 pm local time,’ it said on X.

‘Travel chaos’ is a phrase we’ve certainly heard a lot over the past 24 hours.

But what happened during the Heathrow Airport saga hasn’t all been bad.

‘I was just getting ready to board the plane on Thursday night, and the news actually started coming across on our phones quicker than on the [airport] desk,’ recalled Tim Kolb, who was headed to the UK from Dallas.

‘But American Airlines did a fabulous job – we didn’t have to wait in the line or anything. They got us our accommodation reservation.’

He added: ‘I thought I was going to be there [Dallas] delayed two days, but I went over yesterday.

‘It was organised well. In fact, they had several planes leaving within an hour of each other to Heathrow.

‘The way everybody responded and fell into action, it was fantastic.’

National Grid has issued a statement after a fire at an electrical substation by Heathrow knocked out power not only to the airport, but homes nearby:

‘Since this unprecedented fire broke out at our North Hyde substation late on Thursday night, our teams have worked tirelessly and in close collaboration with the fire brigade and police to get the situation back under control. 

‘Power supplies have been restored to all customers, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at Heathrow. 

‘We are deeply sorry for the disruption caused and are continuing to work closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to understand the cause of the incident.’

‘It looked like a disaster movie at the airport today with all the people walking in the road and I was one of them.’

This is Monel Bailey, who told The Independent that his dream holiday to New York won’t be happening anytime soon.

‘It was chaos. People were showing up to the airport and being sent away,’ he said.

‘There was traffic at the end of the dual-carriageway so I had to get out of the Uber and walk up.’

Farah Rafeeq, 24, and her friend were all ready to fly with Singapore Airlines to make their friend’s wedding in Cambodia this weekend.

But yesterday’s chaos now means they’re going to miss part of the ceremony.

‘The last few hours have been nightmarish because it is one of our closest friends’ wedding and we have to travel for at least 20 hours to get there,’ said Farah.

‘We had to pay double the amount, between £600 and £700, for the new flight, and we had planned this trip for months and had hotels booked and are flying to Southeast Asia after the wedding.’

She and 32-year-old friend Niken Wulan managed to book a different route from Gatwick Turkish Airlines and Bangkok Airways.

‘We are missing the morning ceremony but at least we can make it for the reception,’ she added.

British Airways, the largest flight operator in Heathrow, has been rather busy on X today replying to fliers impacted by yesterday’s chaos.

Sean Doyle, the airline’s chief executive, called it an ‘unprecedented situation’.

‘This incident will have a substantial impact on our airline and customers for many days to come, with disruption to journeys expected over the coming days,’ he said.

BA expects to run about 85% of its schedule today, though 80 flights have been cancelled so far.

Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye told the BBC earlier today that he is ‘proud’ of the airport.

But after yesterday, not everyone might agree.

Jason Bona, owner of supply chain company PS Forwarding, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the incident made Heathrow a ‘laughing stock’.

While International Air Transport Association’s Willie Walsh dubbed it ‘yet another case of Heathrow letting down both travellers and airlines’.

‘You should not have to shut your major national airport if there’s a fire at one substation,’ added Tim Leunig, director of economics at Public First business management consultancy, to the i newspaper.

After being empty for a day, flights are filling up Heathrow’s departure and arrival boards.

Only the odd flight touching ground at Heathrow has been cancelled, including the 11.30am Virgin Atlantic flight from Shannon, Ireland, and a British Airways flight from Portland.

It’s a similar scene on the departures board. British Airways flights to Boston and Edinburgh as well as an Air Canada trip to Dehli have been all in the next hour have been cancelled.

Heathrow has stressed that travellers should ‘check with their airline for the latest information’

Our live coverage has now ended for the day. We will bring you more news tomorrow.

American Airlines has confirmed that it expects to run its full schedule of flights to and from Heathrow tomorrow.

But it has advised customers to check their flight status before going to the airport.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said the fire at the electricity substation near Heathrow was an ‘unprecedented situation’ beyond the airport’s control.

But she says there will be an investigation into how the fire started and Heathrow’s decision to close operations for the day.

She also said that counter-terrorism services will be involved because the fire happened so close to a critical infrastructure site.

The first flight to depart Heathrow Airport since the closure has now left.

The British Airways BAW259 flight took off at 8.58pm and is heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Pictures from inside Heathrow Airport show the first few people in the terminal waiting to get their flights.

A photographer at the scene says only passengers with boarding passes are being allowed in.

London Fire Brigade has said that fire safety officers are still at the scene to follow up various lines of inquiry, with work continuing in the coming weeks.

In a statement, it offered thanks to firefighters and control officers ‘for their courage and professionalism in bringing this incident under control in what were very challenging circumstances’.

The fire at the electricity substation which led to Heathrow Airport’s closure on Friday ‘is believed to be non-suspicious’ and the investigation will ‘focus on the electrical distribution equipment’, London Fire Brigade said.

Meanwhile Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said there are currently no suggestion of foul play in the fire and that there would be lessons to learn from the incident.

Heathrow is expected to run a full schedule on Saturday.

Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of what is Europe’s busiest airport.

Mr Woldbye said: ‘I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire.

‘We have lost power equal to that of a mid-sized city and our backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport.’

Some flights from airports like New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare are resuming to London Heathrow.

These are expected to take off in a few hours and land in the early morning on Saturday.