The fallout of the Heathrow Airport fire has been branded a “national embarrassment” after a single substation had a devastating effect on around 200,000 passengers.
Flights are still being cancelled and delayed in the coming days despite the airport declaring itself “open and fully operational”.
The leading hotelier in the Heathrow area, Surinder Arora, has described the airport’s shutdown as “an embarrassment for the whole nation”.
The sentiment was echoed by Lord Toby Harris, who heads the National Preparedness Commission. He told Channel 4: “It’s a huge embarrassment for the country that a fire in one electricity substation can have such a devastating effect.”
Jason Bona, owner of supply chain company PS Forwarding, told the Today programme the incident made Heathrow a “laughing stock” in the global freight community.
After more than 1,300 flights were grounded on Friday around 100 more have been axed by airlines whose flight crew and aircraft are now out of position.
The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious and the London Fire Brigade’s investigation is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment.
Key Points
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Heathrow Airport ‘open and fully operational’
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Another 100 Heathrow flights cancelled on Saturday
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‘No comment’ Heathrow chief executive asked if should lose his job
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National Grid apologises and says power restored
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Flights begin landing at Heathrow after mass disruption
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Fire not being treated as suspicious, say police
‘Planes, trains and automobiles’ Travellers improvise routes to avoid Heathrow chaos
14:00 , Barney Davis
Phillip Kizun found himself having to freestyle as he tried to urgently get from London to Dublin for a work trip during the Heathrow fire.
After finding out that his flight was cancelled, Mr Kizun, 58, took a train to Wales and then a ferry from the coastal town of Holyhead to the Irish capital.
Along the way he told The New York Times he met several tourists undertaking the same gruelling journey.
“It was an absolute real ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’” Mr Kizun said referring to the 1987 Steve Martin-John Candy comedy.
Moment electrical substation catches fire plunging homes, hospitals and airpots into darkness
13:30 , Barney Davis
BA and Virgin battle to bring planes back after diversions
13:15 , Barney Davis
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are still in the middle of repatriating long-haul aircraft from various European airports. The planes had been flying to London Heathrow in the early hours of Friday morning, UK time, when their pilots were told the airport was closed.
While some early diversions were allowed to land at UK airports, later in the morning captains were landing wherever space and facilities were available.
An Airbus A350 belonging to Virgin Atlantic was flying from Atlanta to Heathrow when it diverted to Shannon in the west of Ireland – where it spent over 30 hours on the ground before flying on to London.
British Airways has brought back a Boeing 777 from Frankfurt, where the flight from Doha was diverted. One BA Airbus A350 from Mumbai has returned from Zurich, where it landed after Heathrow closed.
The subsequent BA flights to Nassau and Philadelphia respectively are several hours late as a result of the diversions.
Later on Saturday, a British Airways 787 will fly the 87 miles to London Heathrow from Birmingham, where the Hong Kong flight landed on Friday morning.
Two airlines have flown from Paris CDG to London Heathrow after Friday’s diversions: a China Eastern Boeing 777 from Shanghai and a Rwandair Airbus A330 from Kigali.
ICYMI: Chief executive of Heathrow announces pride over airport handling of fire
13:01 , Barney Davis
Heathrow chief Thomas Woldbye was grilled over claims that Europe’s biggest airport had become a “laughing stock” after shutting down from just one fire.
But he told BBC Radio 4: “I am proud of the entire ecosystem and that’s not just Heathrow, that’s our handlers, our airlines, our engineers, the fire station.
“I am proud of what the people did to get us out of the situation. Don’t forget the situation was not created at Heathrow Airport. It was created outside the airport and we had to deal with the consequences.”
Mr Woldbye said he would only be able to establish who was to blame for the disaster when investigators “have all the facts”.
Asked if he should lose his job, Mr Woldbye said: “No comments. I will let others judge if they think there is an issue.”
Heathrow closure to cost UK economy up to £4.8m in lost tourism
12:45 , Barney Davis
“In terms of what’s at stake, at the conservative end, we estimate a potential loss of tourism revenue amounting to £4.8 million per day,” economist Stephen Rooney said.
“We can estimate this loss based on typical inbound arrivals volumes that come to the UK through Heathrow and the average daily spend of those travelling.”
My colleague Karl Matchett reports:
Heathrow closure to cost UK economy up to £4.8m in lost tourism
Back in business: Travellers are finally on their way as Heathrow starts to return to normal
12:23 , Barney Davis
‘It was like a disaster movie’
12:02 , Barney Davis
Monel Bailey was forced to walk along a traffic-jammed dual-carriageway dragging his luggage with dozens of other hopeful passengers only to be told he would not be flying to a dream shopping trip to New York.
He told The Independent: “It looked like a disaster movie at the airport today with all the people walking in the road and I was one of them.
“It was chaos. People were showing up to the airport and being sent away
“There was traffic at the end of the dual-carriageway so I had to get out of the Uber and walk up.”
He was forced to cut short his dream holiday and return on the tube to Croydon.
He later told his followers that he hadn’t been refunded for the cancelled flight, adding: “This experience has just been so exhausting and infuriating dealing with both British Airways and Heathrow airport.”
‘It’s been nightmarish’ Londoner dashing to Cambodia to avoid missing wedding
11:35 , Barney Davis
A London woman has said she is frustrated to miss part of her close friend’s wedding after the fire which closed Heathrow airport’s transport hub on Friday.
Farah Rafeeq, 24, was due to travel with Singapore Airlines on Friday from Heathrow with her 32-year-old friend Niken Wulan, who is pregnant, to another friend’s wedding in Cambodia on Sunday.
The mass cancellation of flights means they will now miss part of the ceremony,
They have found an alternative flight from Gatwick Airport with Turkish Airlines and Bangkok Airways that will get them to Cambodia for Sunday afternoon.
Ms Rafeeq, who works in climate project management, said: “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.
“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 South-east Asia after the wedding.
“We are missing the morning ceremony but at least we can make it for the reception.”
Secretary of State for Transport’s relief as Heathrow Airport return to full operations
11:30 , Barney Davis
Passengers urge others to book flights in one transaction to avoid delays
11:20 , Barney Davis
A passenger at Heathrow airport said purchasing their flights in one booking had helped them avoid the worst of the disruption when a nearby fire closed the airport on Friday.
Rob Walford, 74, said: “We were in Nice with friends and we were due to fly into Heathrow yesterday.
“We were going to stay the night and then catch our flight to San Diego, so obviously, we didn’t do that.
“The wisest thing we did, though, while in Nice was take the tram to the airport and then rebook us first thing this morning. If we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be here.
“The British Airways desk sorted it out: we’ve got a flight this morning that wasn’t going to be cancelled, so now we’re good.”
Speaking at Heathrow’s Terminal 5, Mr Walford, who lives in California, added: “Here’s the thing, if you book a flight, make it all one (journey) because I booked the flights separately when we came.
“We were going to do the same thing last night, but didn’t do it again and here we are, and in about 15 hours, we’ll be home.”
Virgin Atlantic apologises for continued disruption
10:43 , Barney Davis
A statement from Virgin Atlantic released on Saturday morning said: “Heathrow Airport has fully reopened and we plan to run a near full schedule with limited cancellations today.
The airline adds that Heathrow Airport’s closure yesterday has left an “impact on today’s flying programme”, including the repositioning of aircraft and crews.
“We’re incredibly sorry for any disruption to our customer’s journeys and we are working to ensure customers affected can complete their journeys as quickly as possible.”
London Heathrow flights cancelled by airline on Friday
10:34 , Barney Davis
British Airways – 677
Virgin Atlantic – 62
Lufthansa – 42
American Airlines – 40
Aer Lingus- 38
United Airlines – 34
SAS – 28
Total: 1,332
Source: CH-Aviation
In pictures: Passengers start to flood back through ‘operational’ Heathrow Airport
10:22 , Barney Davis
Mayor of London issues Heathrow update
10:12 , Barney Davis
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has urged passengers to check with their airlines before making their way to Heathrow.
He posted on X: “Flights have resumed at Heathrow following yesterday’s power outage.
“Operations are returning to normal. I know this has been frustrating, and I want to thank emergency services, Heathrow staff, and engineers for their efforts.
“I’ll remain in close contact with the relevant authorities as the situation develops.”
National Grid apologises and says power restored
10:02 , Barney Davis
Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to National Grid UK’s North Hyde substation.
A National Grid Spokesman said: “Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at the airport.
“We are now implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network.
“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.”
‘Dream birthday’ dashed by airport fire
10:01 , Namita Singh
Ellen Deasy, 29, was surprised by her cousin Jenna with a holiday to Venice for her 30th birthday but had to settle on Portsmouth instead.
With dreams of gelato and gondoliers dashed by the Heathrow Airport fire, she told The Independent: “We woke up at about 3.30am and the first thing we saw were pictures of this fireball and the headlines.
“We were planning on riding the gondolas, eating some pasta and having some ice cream, but now we are going to Portsmouth.
“I was so excited. It would have been a dream birthday but now my thirties haven’t started in the way I hoped.”
Some BA business-class passengers face squeeze
09:51 , Simon Calder
British Airways has temporarily suspended its “empty middle seat” policy in business class on flights within the UK and between London Heathrow and Dublin.
Seats on BA short-haul aircraft are identical in business and economy. To offer premium passengers an improved service in the business-class portion of the plane, normally the middle seat in each row of three is left empty.
But in order to carry as many passengers as possible on domestic flights and the key Heathrow-Dublin route, the middle seat will now be occupied.
The move will increase capacity by around two dozen extra seats on each flight.
British Airways did the same in the aftermath of the Nats air-traffic control failure in August 2023.
‘Typical England’ American blasts lack of contingency at Heathrow
09:34 , Barney Davis
Mark Doherty and his wife were halfway across the Atlantic when the inflight map showed their flight from New York to Heathrow was turning around.
“I was like, you’re joking,” Mr Doherty said before the pilot told passengers they were heading back to JFK airport.
He told ABC News: “Typical England — got no back-up plan for something happens like this. There’s no contingency plan.”
‘Worst disruption for 15 years’
09:23 , Barney Davis
Heathrow is Europe’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024.
But Friday’s fire is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.
In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
‘Fire not suspicious’ Police say after initial assessment
09:12 , Barney Davis
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, which did not result in any casualties at the scene.
“After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing,” Commander Simon Messinger said.
Thousands of homes were left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the substation caught fire.
Heathrow explains power failure
09:02
Heathrow Airport has explained why the backup generator could not power the whole airport.
It said: “We have multiple sources of energy into Heathrow. But when a source is interrupted, we have back-up diesel generators and uninterruptable power supplies in place, and they all operated as expected.
“Our back-up systems are safety systems which allow us to land aircraft and evacuate passengers safely, but they are not designed to allow us to run a full operation.
“As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore it’s not possible to have backup for all of the energy we need to run our operation safely.
“We are implementing a process which will allow us to redirect power to the affected areas, but this is a safety-critical process which takes time, and maintaining safety remains our priority, so we have taken the decision to close the airport for today.”
‘It could be days before passengers are sorted out’ says Transport Select Committee chair
08:52 , Simon Calder
Ruth Cadbury, chair of the Transport Select Committee, has been speaking exclusively to The Independent.
“Like everyone I feel most for the 200,000-old passengers who were affected – but also the airline and airport staff who have to deal with the frustration and stress of all those passengers who either need to get home or have to get to weddings, funerals, to start a holiday.
“All of those people who were due to fly yesterday and are still planning to make that journey – it could be days before they’re sorted out.”
Ms Cadbury, who is Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth in west London, said questions about the resilience of the electricity supply in the area needed to be answered.
“We don’t actually know whether the issue is the responsibility of Heathrow airport or National Grid infrastructure,” she said.
“We have a grid capacity challenge in outer west London due to a lack of enhancements coming in, and the data centres – of which we have a cluster – taking so much power.
“Hopefully in the days or weeks to come, we will know more.”
‘No comment’ Heathrow Chief Executive asked if should lose his job
08:52 , Barney Davis
Asked if anyone should be fired for this, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’ll look back at that when I have all the details.
“Right now our focus is to make sure our passengers are safe and secure, that the airport is operating as it should so we can get aircraft in the air and get our passengers travelling.”
Asked if he should still be in his role, he said bluntly: “No comment to that. I’ll let others judge if they think that’s an issue.”
‘I’m proud of what people did’ Heathrow boss fights back
08:46 , Barney Davis
Responding to the accusation that Heathrow is a “laughing stock” after one fire closed the airport, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye said: “Personally I am quite proud of the entire eco-system – our airlines, our handlers.
“People got us out of the situation which was created outside of the airport.
“There will be questions but I don’t know of an airport that has back up supply that can switch on in minutes of the magnitude we saw yesterday. The same would happen in other airports.”
He said he would establish the facts before blaming anyone for the outage.
‘We were shut for hours, not days’
08:42 , Barney Davis
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye has admitted he was shocked by the “unprecedented” fire and said he would look at the “resilience” of Europe’s busiest airport.
He told the BBC’s Today programme: “The incident yesterday was major it was no small thing. It takes time to reset the airport. “But remember hospitals and homes and other areas went down.
“We have three substations that power different sections of the airport. But when one goes down entirely, which is unprecedented and we have to live with the consequences.
“The airport shut not for days, but for hours because we had to reroute our power supply that requires taking down systems and powering them up again.
“We will learn from this and will ask do we need another level of resilience if we can’t trust the grid around us is working the way it should.”
‘Heathrow uses as much energy as a city every day’ Airport boss explains back-up power failure
08:31 , Barney Davis
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC’s Today programme: “We are sincerely sorry for the inconvenience that passengers have experienced.”
He said the power substation that caught fire was not part of Heathrow’s infrastructure.
“All our backup systems were up and running, our tower was running but our systems are not designed to power the entire airport. We would need a seperate standby powerplant on site and we don’t have that.
“Heathrow uses as much energy as a city every day. We don’t have backup power for fuel systems, bridges and so on.”
He added: “Everything comes to a standstill when we need to reset as we did yesterday.”
‘Airlines will handle stranded passengers’ Heathrow boss
08:25 , Barney Davis
Asked about reports disruptions could bleed into next week, Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye told the BBC’s Today programme: “There are no disruptions to airport operations.
“Airlines, ofcourse, have tales of stranded passengers who need repatriation and so on and they will handle that.
“But the airport itself is running as normal.”
‘We will handle delays as we normally do’ Heathrow chief executive
08:22 , Barney Davis
Heathrow chief executive Thomas Woldbye has told the BBC’s Today programme in an update on Saturday morning: “We don’t expect any major flights to be delayed we are operating as normal.
“On any busy day, as today is, not just because of yesterday there are some cancellations and delays and we are handling them as we normaly do.”
Texan hails ‘fantastic’ airline response as he finally touches down in Heathrow
08:14 , Barney Davis
An American tourist has praised his airline’s and Heathrow’s “fantastic” response to a fire that closed the transport hub on Friday.
Speaking at Heathrow, Tim Kolb, who travelled to the UK on holiday from Dallas, Texas, he said: “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.
“But American Airlines did a fabulous job – we didn’t have to wait in the line or anything. They got us our accommodation reservation.”
Mr Kolb, 55, added: “I thought I was going to be there 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.”
Heathrow airport security will ‘be challenging, but manageable’
08:01 , Simon Calder
With planes departing from London Heathrow expected to be packed, airlines have been told by the airport management to expect long security queues.
After around 120,000 outbound passengers were unable to depart on Friday, every seat on every aircraft is likely to be filled.
On average in normal times, one in five seats is empty.
The 6am Operational Update said: “Our three key recovery objectives are: maintaining a safe and secure operation, managing residual risks, and transitioning back to business as usual.
“Operationally, all tunnels and terminals are open, with additional resources in place to handle any issues.
“Security is expected to be challenging, but manageable. One-stop security has been postponed for today.
“Minor issues with baggage systems in Terminal 2 are being monitored.
“There are also incorrect automated announcements by London Underground and National Highways signage claiming Heathrow is closed. This is being rectified.”
Another 100 Heathrow flights cancelled on Saturday
07:50 , Simon Calder
After more than 1,300 flights were grounded at London Heathrow, around 100 more have been axed by airlines whose flight crew and aircraft are out of position.
British Airways has cancelled almost 80 flights on Saturday after almost its entire schedule was grounded on Friday.
At least 20 long-haul inbound flights are cancelled, including four from New York JFK. Six outbound flights – to Boston, New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Dubai and Riyadh – have been grounded.
Twenty BA short-haul flights serving domestic and European destinations have been grounded.
Virgin Atlantic has cancelled six inbound arrivals after the outbound flights could not operate on Friday, and the morning flight to Montego Bay in Jamaica.
Other long-haul cancellations today include one Singapore Airlines flight, WestJet to Calgary and two flights to Delhi – one on Air Canada, the other on Air India.
Turkish Airlines and Brussels Airlines have also cancelled flights to their hubs, Istanbul and Brussels.
Heathrow Airport ‘open and fully operational’
07:29 , Namita Singh
A spokesperson for Heathrow said early this morning that the airport was “open and fully operational”, adding: “Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.
“We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.
“Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight.”
Flights begin landing at Heathrow after mass disruption
07:09 , Namita Singh
Flights have begun landing at Heathrow as it aims to return to normal operation today after the airport was shut over a loss of power, with restrictions on overnight flights temporarily lifted.
Flights resumed at the west London airport yesterday evening following hours of closure after a blaze knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday evening.
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye told reporters on Friday afternoon: “We expect to be back in full operation (tomorrow), so 100 per cent operation as a normal day.
“(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, British Airways (BA) flight BA56 from Johannesburg, South Africa was the first regular passenger flight to land at Heathrow since Thursday evening, touching down at 4.37am.
BA, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85 per cent of its scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday.
Government temporarily lifts restrictions on overnight flights
06:48 , Namita Singh
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.
According to Heathrow’s website, there is no formal ban on night flights but since the 1960s, the government has placed restrictions on them.
There is an annual limit of 5,800 night-time take-offs and landings between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am as well as a nightly limit, which caps the amount of noise the airport can make at night.
Passengers to face more delays as Heathrow aims to return to normal operation
06:41
Passengers will continue to face delays and cancellations as Heathrow aims to return to normal operation today after the airport was shut over a loss of power, with restrictions on overnight flights temporarily lifted.
Flights resumed at the west London airport yesterday evening following hours of closure after a blaze knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday evening.
The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious and the London Fire Brigade’s investigation is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye told reporters on yesterday afternoon: “We expect to be back in full operation (tomorrow), so 100 per cent operation as a normal day.”(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
But British Airways, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85 per cent of its scheduled flights at the airport today.
The airline would usually expect to run nearly 600 departures and arrivals today but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
A spokesperson said: “We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex.
“We expect around 85 per cent of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”
Couple laments ruined dream holiday amid flight cancellation
06:17 , Namita Singh
Among those whose holiday plans were ruined were Warwickshire couple Nicola and Justin Sidwell, who were set to fly off to Tokyo for a dream holiday.
“We’re now stuck in limbo,” Mr Sidwell told The Independent from the couple’s hotel room. “We have been sitting in our hotel waiting to hear something from British Airways since 5am. It is a nightmare.”
What rights do you have to flight compensation?
06:08 , Namita Singh
Heathrow Airport on Friday experienced a complete shutdown due to a severe fire, disrupting hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Airlines are obligated to provide care for stranded passengers, including meals and accommodations, but are not required to offer compensation as the fire was beyond their control, writes Simon Calder.
Heathrow airport shutdown: What rights do you have to flight compensation?
How many passengers were affected?
06:00 , Namita Singh
Up to 291,000 passengers were set to fly from Heathrow airport yesterday, with 1,330 flights scheduled throughout the day, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Up to 665 departures were scheduled, equating to over 145,094 seats, and 669 flights were due to arrive, equating to 145,836 seats.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said the event would have a huge impact on customers in the coming days.
“To give you an idea of the scale of disruption we face which we’re working to minimise, today we were due to operate more than 670 flights carrying around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned over the weekend,” he said.
EasyJet said it was putting larger aircraft on key routes on Friday and over the weekend to provide additional seats to help customers affected by the Heathrow closure.
Ryanair has also put on extra flights from Dublin to London Stansted “to rescue passengers affected by today’s Heathrow closure”.
What is the economic effect of Heathrow shutdown?
05:51 , Namita Singh
Thousands of passengers had their flights cancelled or altered mid-flight after a massive fire ripped through an electricity substation near Heathrow, forcing the airport to close for more than 15 hours.
Economist Stephen Rooney said: “In terms of what’s at stake, at the conservative end, we estimate a potential loss of tourism revenue amounting to £4.8m per day.
“We can estimate this loss based on typical inbound arrivals volumes that come to the UK through Heathrow and the average daily spend of those travelling.”
He said his estimates did not include the potential loss of earnings of airport and airline staff, lost income for airport retail and ancillary services such as airport taxis.
Insurance payouts, lost money for affected passengers and other costs to airlines involved would further inflate the damage.
ICYMI: What caused the fire at Healthrow Airport?
05:39 , Namita Singh
A transformer at the substation caught fire at Heathrow Airport shutting airport for a day on Friday. However, it is not yet known what caused it.
One nearby resident described their room shaking and hearing a loud bang as the substation caught fire.
London Fire Brigade deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said: “The fire involved a transformer comprising 25,000 litres of its cooling oil fully alight.
“This created a major hazard owing to the still live high-voltage equipment and the nature of an oil-fuelled fire.”
Young band returning to UK fear they will miss exams after getting caught up in Heathrow Airport chaos
05:38 , Namita Singh
Young band returning to UK fear they will miss exams after Heathrow Airport chaos
Stranded passengers find innovative ways to workaround Heathrow shutdown
05:32 , Namita Singh
Phillip Kizun had to devise a new route yesterday after his flight from London to Dublin was cancelled due to a power outage at Heathrow Airport.
Mr Kizun, 58, took a train to Wales and boarded a ferry from Holyhead to reach the Irish capital, meeting several European and American travellers making similar last-minute changes.
“It was an absolute real ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’” he told The New York Times, referencing the 1987 Steve Martin-John Candy comedy, shortly after arriving in Dublin for work.
The outage, caused by a fire at an energy substation near Heathrow, forced the airport to shut down for much of the day, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Some Heathrow-bound flights were forced to turn back midair, while others never departed, causing widespread confusion and frustration.
While some travellers, like Mr Kizun, managed to find alternative routes, others were left in limbo or abandoned their journeys altogether.
Airline shares fall as Heathrow outage causes travel chaos
04:58 , Namita Singh
Shares in many airlines fell on Friday.Aviation experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic volcanic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.
They warned that some passengers forced to land in Europe may have to stay in transit lounges if they lack the paperwork to leave the airport.
Prices at hotels around Heathrow jumped, with booking sites offering rooms for £500 ($645), roughly five times the normal price levels.
Police said after an initial assessment, they were not treating the incident at the power substation as suspicious, although enquiries remained ongoing. London Fire Brigade said its investigations would focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow and London’s other major airports have been hit by other outages in recent years, most recently by an automated gate failure and an air traffic system meltdown, both in 2023.
Airport closure to have ‘huge’ impact on fliers as Heathrow shirks off responsibility for liabilities
04:48 , Namita Singh
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted by Britain’s Department of Transport to ease congestion, but British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said the closure was set to have a “huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days”.
Virgin Atlantic said it expected to operate “a near full schedule” with limited cancellations on Saturday but that the situation remained dynamic and all flights would be kept under continuous review.
Airlines including JetBlue, American Airlines, Air Canada, Air India, Delta Air Lines, Qantas, United Airlines, British Airways and Virgin were diverted or returned to their origin airports in the wake of the closure, according to data from flight analytics firm Cirium.
Meanwhile, Heathrow Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye said he expected the airport to be back “in full operation” today.
Asked who would pay for the disruption, he said there were “procedures in place”, adding “we don’t have liabilities in place for incidents like this”.
Report: Heathrow closure to cost UK economy up to £4.8m in lost tourism
04:30 , Alex Croft
A fire that shut down Heathrow airport due to a major power outage will cost the UK economy millions of pounds – even as flights resume on Friday night.
Some 1,351 flights were either cancelled or forced to land elsewhere, affecting thousands of tourists and many businesses, even beyond the airlines who suffered the first impact on Friday morning.
While putting a precise figure on the impact of such an unexpected occurrence is difficult, the usual flow of inbound passengers to the airport provide scope for at least some guidance of the damage which might be done, as Oxford Economics told The Independent.
“In terms of what’s at stake, at the conservative end, we estimate a potential loss of tourism revenue amounting to £4.8 million per day,” economist Stephen Rooney said.
“We can estimate this loss based on typical inbound arrivals volumes that come to the UK through Heathrow and the average daily spend of those travelling.”
Karl Matchett with the full report:
Heathrow closure to cost UK economy up to £4.8m in lost tourism
‘Shameful’: Traveller criticises lack of comfort in Heathrow as he waits 30 hours for next flight
04:20 , Alex Croft
Alex Udenba missed a day of his holiday to see family and friends in Nigeria because his flight was cancelled.
Mr Udenba, a retail worker in London, has not gone to the country in three years and was hoping to spend a month there.
The 41-year-old has been in the airport since 1am on Friday, and will be there until his new flight at 7.30am on Saturday.
He said: “Heathrow Airport, a world-class airport, doesn’t have a place for people to sit down when things like this happen. It is very shameful. It’s not anyone’s fault this happened, but at least we should be looked after.”
In pictures: Passengers stranded after mass flight cancellations on Friday
04:15 , Alex Croft
Global travel chaos leaves airlines scrambling to fix flight schedules
04:05 , Namita Singh
The global aviation industry was scrambling on Saturday to reroute passengers and fix battered airline schedules after a huge fire at an electrical substation serving London’s Heathrow Airport forced closure of Europe’s busiest air hub.
Some flights resumed on Friday evening, but the shuttering of the world’s fifth-busiest airport for most of the day left tens of thousands searching for scarce hotel rooms and replacement seats while airlines tried to return jets and crew to bases.
The industry, facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds and a likely fight over who should pay, questioned how such crucial infrastructure could fail without backup.
“It is a clear planning failure by the airport,” said Willie Walsh, head of global airlines body IATA, who, as former head of British Airways, has for years been a fierce critic of the crowded hub.
The airport had been due to handle 1,351 flights on Friday, flying up to 291,000 passengers, but planes were diverted to other airports in Britain and across Europe, while many long-haul flights returned to their point of departure.
Heathrow hotels charge stranded passengers up to £650 for rooms after airport closure
04:01 , Alex Croft
Senior reporter Alex Ross investigates:
Hotels have been accused of profiteering with rooms near Heathrow Airport costing £650 on Friday as hundreds of passengers have been left stranded by the closure of the grounding of all flights.
Louis, a video producer who was due to fly to Dublin, accused nearby hotels of increasing their prices, with major chains charging more than £500 for accommodation on Friday night.
The 28-year-old, who only provided his first name, was forced to search for a new hotel in case Saturday’s rescheduled flight was cancelled again.
“They’ve actually doubled, if not, in some cases, tripled the prices of the rooms based on what’s going on, which is absolutely absurd. They’re profiting off of people’s misfortunes in this. I don’t know how that’s allowed,” he said.
A search showed the cheapest room at Best Western London Heathrow Ariel Hotel was a executive double room priced at £650 for one night on Friday – the same room is £72.25 next week, 28 March.
At Holiday Inn London – Heathrow Bath Road, the cheapest rooms – a queen standard, single standard and standard – were all priced at £541 on Friday. A week later, the rooms cost £87. The chain’s Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4 is sold out. Read more here.
Around 200,000 passengers hit by airport closure
03:47 , Namita Singh
Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of Europe’s busiest airport.
This is believed to be the worst disruption at Heathrow since December 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said she was in close contact with the energy secretary, the home secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that any lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has in place are learned”.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday, forcing the closure of the airport.
Some 120 aircraft heading to the airport at that time were forced to either divert or return to their point of origin, measures which saw passengers on board Qantas flights to Heathrow from Singapore and Perth diverted to Paris before taking buses to London.
Counter-terrorism officers from the Metropolitan Police have been leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, which did not result in any casualties at the scene.
“After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing,” Commander Simon Messinger said.
Thousands of homes were left without power and more than 100 people were evacuated after a transformer within the substation caught fire.
‘We cannot guard ourselves 100%’
03:09 , Namita Singh
After Heathrow Airport was shut over loss of power, Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye said a back-up transformer failed, meaning systems had to be closed down in accordance with safety procedures so that power supplies could be restructured from two remaining substations to restore enough electricity to power what is described as a “mid-sized city”.
He apologised to stranded passengers and defended the airport’s response to the situation, saying the incident is as “as big as it gets for our airport” and that “we cannot guard ourselves 100 per cent”.
After announcing early yesterday that it would be closed until 11.59pm, Heathrow later reopened with a focus on repatriation flights for passengers diverted to other airports in Europe.
Government temporarily lifts restrictions on overnight flights
03:06 , Namita Singh
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.
According to Heathrow’s website, there is no formal ban on night flights but since the 1960s, the government has placed restrictions on them.
There is an annual limit of 5,800 night-time take-offs and landings between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am as well as a nightly limit, which caps the amount of noise the airport can make at night.
‘You have to be tough, but at least it is safe in Heathrow’
03:05 , Alex Croft
Janice Ramirez, 49, was on a layover flight from Singapore to the Cayman Islands for her work as a travel agent.
Her flight was diverted from Heathrow to Gatwick. She was meant to arrive at Heathrow at 9am but arrived by train at 4pm, and is now trying to book a hotel to wait for her Monday flight.
Ms Ramirez said: “A lot of people were requesting hotels and all the hotels around here are booked up. My sister is helping me book a hotel, I think it will be a bit further out. It’s not OK sitting here at this time, but you have to be tough. At least it is safe here.”
Passengers to face more delays as Heathrow aims to return to normal operation
02:56 , Namita Singh
Passengers will continue to face delays and cancellations as Heathrow aims to return to normal operation today after the airport was shut over a loss of power, with restrictions on overnight flights temporarily lifted.
Flights resumed at the west London airport yesterday evening following hours of closure after a blaze knocked out an electricity substation in Hayes late on Thursday evening.
The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious and the London Fire Brigade’s investigation is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye told reporters on yesterday afternoon: “We expect to be back in full operation (tomorrow), so 100 per cent operation as a normal day.
“(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
But British Airways, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85 per cent of its scheduled flights at the airport today.
The airline would usually expect to run nearly 600 departures and arrivals today but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
A spokesperson said: “We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex.
“We expect around 85 per cent of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”
Heathrow airport closure: Everything we know about the Hayes substation fire and effects of grounded flights
02:11 , Alex Croft
Thousands of passengers had their flights cancelled or altered mid-flight after a massive fire ripped through an electricity substation near Heathrow, forcing the airport to close for more than 15 hours.
Up to 300,000 customers had been set to use Europe’s biggest airport on Friday, but 1,351 flights were disrupted by the blaze.
Despite initially saying it would be closed all day, Heathrow later announced some long-haul flights would restart during the evening.
The blaze erupted in Hayes, five miles north of the airport, leaving around 67,000 households suffering power cuts.
Read the full report:
Heathrow airport: Everything we know about the fire and effects of grounded flights
Watch: Drone footage shows London electricity substation fire which has forced Heathrow Airport closure
01:15 , Jane Dalton
We need to learn lessons, says transport secretary
00:20 , Jane Dalton
The closure of Heathrow due to a substation fire is an “absolutely unprecedented situation”, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said.
“It’s been a situation that has been outside of Heathrow’s control.
“I certainly didn’t expect to wake up this morning and see that huge fire happening,” she said.
She thanked the emergency services for their response and the National Grid for getting power restored to the airport, as well as staff at Heathrow who have “worked tirelessly all day to get to a point today where flights are able to land again and where the airport hopes to resume full operations tomorrow”.
Asked what questions there are to answer about the incident, she said: “We need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure.”
She said she was in close contact with the Energy Secretary, the Home Secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that any lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has in place are learned”.
Saturday cancellations at Heathrow hit 100
Friday 21 March 2025 23:45 , Alex Croft
Travel correspondent Simon Calder reports:
British Airways has revealed it is likely to cancel 90 flights to and from London Heathrow on Saturday – despite an assurance from the airport’s chief executive that a “full service” would operate.
A BA spokesperson said: “We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex. We expect around 85% of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run.”
With around 600 flights due to arrive and depart on Saturday, that represents 90 cancellations.
British Airways also says: “It is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.
“Our focus is on getting our customers and colleagues to where they need to be as quickly and as safely possible. We will be contacting all affected customers to advise them of their options, and we thank them for bearing with as work through these solutions.”
In addition, a number of other airlines have grounded flights to and from Heathrow, with these key outbound cancellations:
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Air Canada to Delhi.
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Air India to Delhi.
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American Airlines to New York JFK.
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Brussels Airlines to Brussels.
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Turkish Airlines to Istanbul.
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Virgin Atlantic to Montego Bay, Jamaica.
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WestJet to Calgary.
British Airways warns ‘huge impact’ of Heathrow shutdown will last ‘days’
Friday 21 March 2025 23:40 , Alex Croft
British Airways has warned its services will be severely impacted over the coming days after the closure of Heathrow Airport.
Chief executive Sean Doyle described the situation as “unprecedented”, with more than 100,000 of its customers on board some 670 flights being affected on Friday.
In a video message to passengers on Friday afternoon, Mr Doyle said British Airways had “been forced to effectively ground our flying operation” due to the incident, cancelling every short-haul and the majority of long-haul flights scheduled for Friday.
He said: “This is an unprecedented situation, and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow of this scale for many years.
“Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days.
“Our colleagues are working extremely hard to support our customers with the most up to date information in a live and evolving situation.”
Fire not being seen as suspicious, say police
Friday 21 March 2025 23:30 , Jane Dalton
The investigation into the fire is at an early stage but it is not being treated as suspicious, the Metropolitan Police say.
Commander Simon Messinger, who is leading the Met Police response, said: “The investigation into the cause of the fire remains in its early stages. After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although inquiries do remain ongoing.
“Due to the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are leading our inquiries into this matter.
“This is due to the specialist resources and capabilities within that command that can assist in progressing this investigation at pace and to help minimise disruption and identify the cause.
“Officers are working closely with a number of local partners, including the London Fire Brigade, National Grid and SSEN to build a picture of the circumstances surrounding the fire.
“Various specialist investigators continue to examine the scene and it is expected to take some time before full assessments can be completed.
“Officers will continue to work alongside colleagues on the investigation, but as we have stated above, at this stage, there remains no indication of any foul play.”
Flight to Saudi Arabia takes off from Heathrow
Friday 21 March 2025 22:47 , Alex Croft
A British Airways flight to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, one of the eight long-haul flights the airline announced were set to leave Heathrow on Friday evening, has taken off.
Flight BA259 departed at 8.58pm, a delay of 40 minutes from its expected departure time.
Watch: Everything you need to know about the Heathrow airport closure
Friday 21 March 2025 22:45 , Alex Croft
BA warns services will be hit in coming days
Friday 21 March 2025 22:05 , Jane Dalton
British Airways has warned its services will be severely hit over the coming days after the closure of Heathrow Airport.
Chief executive Sean Doyle described the situation as “unprecedented”, with more than 100,000 customers on board some 670 flights being affected on Friday.
Mr Doyle said: “This is an unprecedented situation, and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow of this scale for many years.
“Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days.”
He said the airline had extended opening times on its phone lines to help manage as many customers as quickly as possible.
Closure to cost economy up to £4.8m
Friday 21 March 2025 21:20 , Jane Dalton
Heathrow closure to cost UK economy up to £4.8m in lost tourism
UK’s key infrastructure vulnerable, says expert
Friday 21 March 2025 21:00 , Jane Dalton
A former intelligence officer in the British military said Heathrow’s inability to keep operating after the power cut exposed vulnerability in Britain’s critical national infrastructure.
“It is a wake-up call,” said Philip Ingram. “There is no way that Heathrow should be taken out completely because of a failure in one power substation.”
Willie Walsh, the head of the global airlines body IATA and a former head of British Airways, said Heathrow had let passengers down.
Heathrow said it had diesel generators and uninterruptible power supplies in place to land aircraft and evacuate passengers safely.
Those systems all operated as expected. But with the airport consuming as much energy as a small city, it said it could not run all its operations safely on back-up systems.
Watch: First plane lands at Heathrow after grounding disrupts over 300,000 passenger’s travel plans
Friday 21 March 2025 20:35 , Alex Croft
Report: Heathrow airport reopens after fire closure leaves hundreds of thousands stranded worldwide
Friday 21 March 2025 20:17 , Alex Croft
The first flights landed at Heathrow on Friday evening after the airport closed for more than 15 hours, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide due to a fire at a nearby power substation.
The airport’s chief executive apologised to everyone who suffered disruption and defended the response to the “unprecedented” loss of power.
Counterterrorism police are probing the blaze that upset the journeys of up to 300,000 passengers worldwide and caused chaos for airline schedules. Around 1,300 flights in and out of Heathrow – from Cairo to Sydney – were cancelled.
Read the full report here:
Heathrow airport reopens after fire closure leaves thousands stranded worldwide
Night flight curbs temporarily lifted
Friday 21 March 2025 19:59 , Jane Dalton
Restrictions on overnight flights have been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion following the closure of Heathrow Airport, the Department of Transport says.
According to Heathrow’s website, there is no formal ban on night flights but since the 1960s, the government has placed restrictions on them.
There is an annual limit of 5,800 night-time take-offs and landings between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am as well as a nightly limit, which caps the amount of noise the airport can make at night.
The DfT also said it had allowed passengers to use rail tickets flexibly.
Where planes were diverted to
Friday 21 March 2025 19:40 , Jane Dalton
Heathrow flights map: Where are planes being diverted to after substation fire
Fire not suspicious, say fire chiefs
Friday 21 March 2025 19:29 , Jane Dalton
The fire at the electricity substation which led to Heathrow Airport’s closure “is believed to be non-suspicious” and the investigation will “focus on the electrical distribution equipment”, London Fire Brigade has said.
Dream holidays in ruins
Friday 21 March 2025 19:20 , Jane Dalton
Dream holidays in ruins as thousands of travellers reel from Heathrow chaos
Planes start to land again
Friday 21 March 2025 19:16 , Jane Dalton
Some flights have started landing at Heathrow for the first time after the airport was closed for more than 15 hours, according to Flight Radar.
The site suggests an aircraft from Qingdao, China, and one from Tokyo, Japan, were among the first to arrive.
Cancellations for Saturday
Friday 21 March 2025 19:12 , Jane Dalton
As well as eight British Airways long-haul flights departing on Friday evening, Flightradar24 indicates that Qatar Airways to Doha and Ethiopian Airlines to Addis Ababa will also take off.
Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, has said the airport will run a full service on Saturday.
But The Independent has identified some significant cancellations:
Air Canada and Air India to Delhi; American Airlines to New York JFK; Turkish Airlines to London Heathrow; Virgin Atlantic to Montego Bay, Jamaica.
In addition, there are some long delays – with Japan Airlines to Tokyo likely to depart seven hours late.
Back-up transformer failed, boss admits
Friday 21 March 2025 19:00 , Jane Dalton
Heathrow’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye has revealed that a back-up transformer failed and power supplies had to be restructured to restore electricity enough to power what is described as a “mid-sized city”.
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says she is in close contact with the Energy Secretary, the Home Secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that any lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has in place are learned”.
Airport expects to run full operation on Saturday, says boss
Friday 21 March 2025 18:45 , Jane Dalton
The chief executive of Heathrow has said the airport expects to return to “100% operation” on Saturday after an “unprecedented” day of disruption.
Thomas Woldbye told the press: “We expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation as a normal day.
“(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
Virgin Atlantic confirms Saturday cancellations
Friday 21 March 2025 18:31 , Jane Dalton
Virgin Atlantic has cancelled three flights on Saturday.
Two inbound flights to London Heathrow – VS026 from New York JFK and VS450 from Johannesburg – have been grounded, as well as VS165 from Heathrow to Montego Bay in Jamaica.
But the airline warns passengers “the situation remains dynamic and we’ll keep all flights under continuous review”.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: “A fire at an electrical sub station near Heathrow Airport has resulted in the airport’s temporary closure until later today.
“Unfortunately this has had a significant impact on our flying programme both into and out of Heathrow and all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights for the remainder of 21 March are cancelled.
“We expect to operate a near-full schedule tomorrow, with limited cancellations, the situation remains dynamic and we’ll keep all flights under continuous review.
“We kindly request that all customers do not travel to Heathrow or their scheduled departure airport, or contact our customer centre at this time and instead check their flight status at virginatlantic.com.
“We’re incredibly sorry for the disruption this will cause and are working with our teams to ensure customers can complete their journeys as quickly as possible.”
Heathrow boss defends airport
Friday 21 March 2025 18:15 , Jane Dalton
Heathrow’s chief executive has defended the airport’s response to the power cut caused by the fire.
Thomas Woldbye said: “First of all, what I’d like to do is to apologise to the many people who have had their travel affected during the day today. We are very sorry about all the inconvenience.”
He continued: “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 back-up systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport.”
Asked whether there was a weak point in Heathrow’s power system, he said: “You can say that, but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100% and this is one of them.
“This has been a major incident. I mean, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are actually coming back quite fast, I would say, when you consider the amount of systems that we have to shut down then bring back up and make sure that they’re safe.”
We’ll learn lessons, says transport secretary
Friday 21 March 2025 18:00 , Jane Dalton
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged the “immense distress and disruption” caused by the closure of Heathrow and pledged: “We will learn the lessons”.
The minister said: “This has been an unprecedented situation that has been totally outside of Heathrow’s control.
“They have stood up their resilience plan swiftly, and they’ve collaborated closely with our emergency responders and the airline operators, they do have back-up energy supplies, they have generators, diesel generators.
“None of that failed on this occasion because that back-up supply is designed to protect the critical key systems within the airport and not to provide power to the whole airport.
“It’s important to remember that large airports such as Heathrow take up about as much energy as a small city, and so I’ve spoken to the chief executive of Heathrow about what has happened and any lessons that might be learned for the future, but I’m confident that Heathrow is a world-class airport that provides excellent services day in, day out, to millions of passengers and businesses all over the world, and so we will learn the lessons.
“But it’s been really important that people have responded swiftly, and it’s good news that planes are landing again later today, and that Heathrow have said that they want to resume full operations tomorrow.
“I would still advise anyone who has got a flight tomorrow to check in with their airline before travelling to the airport, but given the scale and magnitude of this incident, the response has been swift, although I do appreciate there will have been immense distress and disruption to a very large number of people.”
Pictured: Empty runways
Friday 21 March 2025 17:50 , Jane Dalton
Chief executive apologises
Friday 21 March 2025 17:39 , Jane Dalton
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye has apologised to passengers disrupted by the closure of the airport but defended its response, saying “this is as big as it gets for our airport” and that “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
We must ensure lessons are learnt, says transport secretary
Friday 21 March 2025 17:34 , Jane Dalton
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander says she has spoken to Heathrow Airport’s chief executive about “any lessons that might be learnt for the future” following the fire.
Asked what questions there were to answer, she said: “We need to understand what caused an incident of this magnitude at an electricity substation that is very close to a critical piece of national infrastructure.”
She said she was in close contact with the Energy Secretary, the Home Secretary and with Heathrow to “make sure that any lessons we need to learn from the systems that the airport has in place are learned”.
