Global chaos with flights to and from Heathrow Airport - Britain's largest airport and one of the busiest in the world - after a fire broke out at an electricity substation supplying the airport. Britain's counter-terrorism agency has now taken over the investigations while flights to and from Heathrow have been suspended since the early hours of the morning and the problems are expected to last for days.
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Heathrow Airport said in a statement that significant disruption is expected in the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances.
Heathrow Airport said it did not know when power would be restored and expected the problems to last for days after a fire at a power substation affected flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers in Europe's busiest travel hub.
The airport said in a statement that it "does not have a clear picture of when electricity will be restored."
The statement added that "significant disruption is expected in the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until it reopens".
It is noted that earlier, Heathrow had stated that it was not expected to reopen before Saturday.
However, following the airport's announcement, National Grid said it had reconfigured the network so that it could now refuel Heathrow Airport from the Hayes substation, noting that it was a "temporary solution" while work to fully restore normal operation continues.
It was not immediately clear what this meant for the reopening of Heathrow, which said it does not have a clear picture of when the power supply will be reliably restored.
"We expect significant disruptions in the coming days," he added.
At least 1,300 flights to and from Heathrow have already been affected, including several from U.S. cities that were canceled, according to flight tracking service FlightRadar 24.
In the early hours of Friday, Heathrow announced that it would remain closed for the rest of the day with no flights landing or taking off due to a "severe" power outage caused by a fire at a power substation. The cause of the fire is not yet known.
The impact of the disruptions is expected to extend far beyond Britain's largest travel hub, potentially damaging the airline industry by hundreds of millions of pounds.
Every year, Heathrow Airport handles nearly £200 billion worth of goods, equivalent to £543 million worth of goods handled daily, according to the airport.
Almost half (48%) of Britain's total air cargo was transported through Heathrow in 2023.
Investigations into the causes of the fire have been undertaken by the British anti-terrorism service, with British police clarifying, however, that so far there is "no indication of intent" for the fire, but is considering all possible possibilities.
Industry sources speculate that the fire at the Hayes substation may have been caused by either overheating the steel inside a transformer or damage to the insulation between internal cables, the Financial Times reports.
London's Counter-Terrorism Police are leading the investigation into the fire at a power substation at nearby Heathrow Airport "given the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure".
The impact of the fire on the power substation near Heathrow has had a devastating impact on a key part of Britain's national infrastructure – the kind of impact terrorist groups and hostile states would like to have.
A police spokesman said there was "no indication of criminal activity", but detectives were keeping open all possible scenarios about the causes of the fire. "We are cooperating with the Fire Service to ascertain the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation. Although there is currently no evidence of criminal activity, we are keeping an open mind at this time," London's Metropolitan Police said.
"Given the location of the substation and the impact this incident had on critical national infrastructure, the Met Counter-Terrorism Command is now leading the investigations. This is due to the specialized resources and capabilities of this administration that can help advance this investigation at a pace to minimize disruption and identify the cause," according to the statement.
At the same time, citizens who lived near the substation that caught fire, were evacuated from their homes, for their safety.
