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LAST UPDATE | 21 Mar
HEATHROW AIRPORT RESUMED “some flights” this evening as its chief executive apologised to stranded passengers and defended the response to an “unprecedented” loss of power caused by a fire.
The fire at an electrical substation that supplies electricity to the airport early this morning led to the cancellation of more than 1,300 flights, the closure of the airport all day and the launch of a counter-terrorism probe.
Thousands of homes were also impacted, with roughly 100 people requiring evacuation overnight.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Heathrow said staff at the airport “have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery”.
“We’re now safely able to restart flights, prioritising repatriation and relocation of aircraft. Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.”
The spokesperson said they hope to run a full operation tomorrow, adding that their priority remains the safety of passengers and those working at the airport.
We hope to run a full operation tomorrow and will provide further information shortly. Our priority remains the safety of our passengers and those working at the airport. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident. (2/2)
— Heathrow Airport (@HeathrowAirport) March 21, 2025
The fire at the substation is thought to be “non-suspicious”, according to the London Fire Brigade (LFB).
“LFB Fire Investigation Officers, supported by a scientific advisor, have been working closely with the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to investigate the cause of this fire,” a statement from LFB read.
“The MPS has confirmed that the fire is believed to be non-suspicious. LFB’s investigation will now focus on the electrical distribution equipment.”
Police seemingly backed up the LFB’s findings, saying in a statement this evening that they “are not treating this incident as suspicious” – although investigations are ongoing.
Aer Lingus has said it is planning to operate its normal schedule to and from Heathrow tomorrow.
A spokesperson said the airline’s customer care teams are currently “working hard” to provide their impacted customers “with the options available to them”, including applying for refunds and changing flights without a change fee applying.
British Airways said it had received clearance to depart eight long-haul flights from 7pm to cities including Johannesburg, Singapore and Riyadh.
Heathrow’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye 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%”.
“I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire,” Woldbye said.
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.
Asked if there is 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.”
Woldbye said that the airport expects to return to “100% operation” tomorrow and told passengers that they should come to the airport “as they normally would”, adding that there was no reason to come earlier.
Power was restored in Terminal 4 of the airport this afternoon.
A spokesperson for the UK’s National Grid said the network has been reconfigured to restore all impacted customers, including the ability to resupply Heathrow.
BREAKING: Heathrow Outage 'as big as it gets'
— Sky News (@SkyNews) March 21, 2025
Heathrow airport Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye gives a statement on the closure of the airport.
Follow live updates: https://t.co/VRZ5iSDJrN
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/SOe6Tbncoe
“This is an interim solution while we carry out further work at North Hyde to return the substation and our network to normal operation,” they said.
Heathrow previously said it did not have “clarity on when power may be reliably restored” and warned that “we expect significant disruption over the coming days”.
Counter-terrorism officers from London’s Metropolitan Police said there is currently no indication of foul play but investigators are keeping an “open mind” at this time, as counter-terrorism units took the lead on the investigation this afternoon due to the impact on critical infrastructure.
More than 200,000 passengers flying from Heathrow, home of Europe’s busiest airport, had their flights cancelled as a result of the fire.
Online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 this morning said the closure would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow. It said 120 flights to the airport were in the air when the closure was announced, some of which were redirected in the air to Shannon Airport in Co Clare.
Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, with more than 83.9 million passengers travelling through its terminals in 2024. Eurostar, or the Chunnel, has said it will be operating more trains between London and Paris in the coming days, to assist with passengers affected by the flight cancellations.
Over 60 flights were impacted on the island of Ireland by the Heathrow cancellations.
Six Heathrow flights, three inbound and three outbound, were cancelled at Shannon Airport while 34 flights, 17 inbound and 17 outbound, were cancelled at Dublin Airport today.
Two flights, one inbound and one outbound, were cancelled at Knock Airport and six flights, three inbound and three outbound, were cancelled at Cork airport.
At least 15 flights were cancelled, both ways, at Belfast City and Derry airports.
Dublin Airport cannot accept diversions. Graeme McQueen, communications manager with the DAA, said passengers should be prepared for further cancellations over the weekend.
Dozens flights were diverted to Shannon Airport, Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, as well as airports in the United States and Canada, open-source flight tracking websites show.
Happy to help our colleagues at London @HeathrowAirport today by facilitating a number of diversions at Shannon Airport.
— Shannon Airport (@ShannonAirport) March 21, 2025
This morning's first diversion landed safely at 04.26am ✈️
(1/3) pic.twitter.com/ogdkPRzixJ
Six flights from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark landed at Shannon Airport last night. The operators at the airport, as well as the airlines that landed there, have organised accommodation for the passengers nearby as travel companies arrange alternative transport.
Shannon CEO, Mary Considine, told RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland today that all operations are running as normal today and more diverted flights may arrive in Shannon due to the nature of the evolving situation.
Vice President of the Irish Travel Agent Association Paul Hacken told the same programme this morning that passengers who booked with travel agents should contact those companies directly.
He said airlines that are impacted are doing “all that they can” to assist with passengers that need to get to Heathrow, adding that the only airline that appears not to be impacted is Ryanair.
The budget airline sought to take advantage of the opportunity online this morning, advertising “eight rescue flights” to Stanstead today and tomorrow. Tickets for the Ryanair flights will be on offer this morning.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X there was a large-scale power outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the surrounding areas impacting more than 16,300 homes.
A National Grid spokesperson said the fire had damaged equipment and they “working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible”. Ten fire engines and 70 firefighters were at the scene, as of 6am this morning.
Firefighters led 29 people from surrounding properties to safety. Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
Speaking to broadcasters at the scene in Hayes, deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said: “The fire involved a transformer comprising of 25,000 litres of cooling oil fully alight.
“This created a major hazard due to the still live high-voltage equipment and the nature of the oil-fuelled fire.”
The brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene. Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm last night and the cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
Goulbourne said firefighters urged people to take safety precautions as crews worked to extinguish the blaze.
“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” he said. As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”
London Ambulance Service and Metropolitan Police both confirmed they were on scene supporting fire crews.
Includes reporting by Diarmuid Pepper, Muiris Ó Cearbhaill, Valerie Flynn and Andrew Walsh
Mad that one substation can knock out an entire airport where is the failover?
@Rian O’Sullivan: Now, if that had happened here and Dublin Airport was closed! Imagine the chattering classes pointing fingers at FFG etc, saying how stupid we are and it wouldn’t happen in other countries, we are like the 3rd world, etc.
@Billy Meehan: and vice versa
@Rian O’Sullivan: One substation providing power to the whole airport, no backup generators. It is third world stuff, no I take that back, third world airports would have generators :-)
Does anyone else remember when a digger went through the cable providing power to Dublin Airport Control Tower. Both the battery backup and generators kicked into action at the same time, and ended up shorting out each other. The only form of communications to aircraft left working were the ground staff’s Walkie-talkies!
@Me Me: excellent point made.
@Mark R: there was a back up but it was affected by the fire also.
@Mark R: According to the BBC which quoted Ed Miliband, “There’s obviously been a catastrophic fire at this substation,” he says, adding “it appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as a substation itself.”
@Mark R: clearly they should have hired you to run the airport
@Alan OConnor: You are correct. I am still available as a consultant. Heathrow management should have long ago identified all the single points of failure and removed them. Multiple substations should feed into the site. They should not interconnect at one single point. There should be at least two sets of backup generators at different locations. I would have a set per terminal and for the control tower. They should have the ability to switch between sources of power (mains/generators) from a matrix of multiple switch stations.
@Mark R: don’t really have a clue, do you.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Should have been in an alternative site !
@Mark R: Have you any idea how much it would cost to have that much generation capacity on hand, and then have it laying idle for years until a once a decade incident occurs ?
@Tommy Roche: I will pull a figure of £50 million from my arse. Probably about as much as today’s FUBAR.
@Me Me: yea, and you would somehow blame SF.
Enjoy this utopia you are living in thanks to FFG!
@Me Me: Tosser
@Billy Meehan: incredible comment given the penchant for FFG to roll from scandal to scandal and yet they try to blame SF for it… Every time
Lowrys dodgy buddies
@Me Me: And it happening in London is still third world stuff!
Thankfully no one lost their lives.
@Lance Taylor: I agree. I read several times that in Poland there’s significant increase in random, unexplained fires breaking out in many parts of the country.
@Lance Taylor: Yes because electricity substation NEVER go on fire
@Lance Taylor: wouldn’t be surprised, but no evidence for that yet
@Billy Meehan: I agree. It is one of Europes most corr upt countries.
@Brianan briananb@hotmail.co.uk: Indeed it might be but after Russia and Italy.
@Con Cussed: Actually, I got the above wrong. Transparency International have Ukraine at 104 (shared with other countries). Uganda, Kyrgyzstan and Russia are down at 141. Denmark is least corrupt in first place. Ireland is 11 sandwiched between Luxembourg and Canada.
@Con Cussed: In 2024 Russia and Ukraine slipped again. Russia fell to 154 and Ukraine (one place) to 105. So overall, Russia is more corrupt than Ukraine but then a lot of right wing folks on here don’t believe in facts, let alone use them!
@Razor Mulligan: indeed.
@Lance Taylor:
That was my first thought.
A full investigation is needed
@Brianan briananb@hotmail.co.uk: Oh…I don’t know, Ireland would give it a good run for her money!
@Lance Taylor: Jump the gun much?
@Brian Hunt: Nope, Ireland is ranked 11th when it comes to the least corrupt countries. Pretty impressive, I think. Russia isn’t in the top 100. Source: Transparency International annual report for 2023
Maybe if they send even more money to Ukraine the infrastructure in the UK will improve after 15 years of Tory cuts
@Billy Meehan: Troll harder. I think it’s cute how needy/desperate you are for attention.
@FoxyBoiiYT: “attention”? Thorazine injections.
@FoxyBoiiYT: maybe if we give the sudetenland to mr Hitler he will be satisfied and wont start WW2?
how did that work out last time?
@Termaz FX: Is everyone Hitler now?
Weren’t those Stop Oil punks out trying to disrupt Heathrow airport yesterday?
@Ethan Gannon: I think the court case was yesterday, sentencing 16th of May.
@Billy Meehan: Death penalty more like it
@Billy Meehan: Thank fcuk people like you will never be in charge of anything.
@FoxyBoiiYT: Likewise either will you pet.
@Billy Meehan: sure Billy, pointing out the inevitable slide towards destruction of the planet and human existence “terrorists”. Billionaires and governments ignoring the issue and acting illegally and recklessly “great guys” give your head a wobble
@Rian O’Sullivan: has your mental illness gone undiagnosed all your life?
@Ethan Gannon: The Coolock Says No wasters on a day trip.
@Justin Mcnulty: Billy and Rian are the same person too. Lossmaking deficients.
@Justin Mcnulty: Go back and play with your Lego child.
@Billy Meehan: Does make great TV
Someone park a Tesla next to it?
@Ronan Mc: transformers, robots in disguise
Unbelievable that there is not back up supply. We live in a world where share holder value and low corporation tax supersedes the public good for infrastructure development and upkeep. Politicians too enamoured with voter friendly Woke and DEI policies while instead of maintaining Countries roads, bridges and energy infrastructure.
@Lance Taylor: oh for gods sake
@gregory pym: Flamerboi.
@Lance Taylor: you seem to be foaming at the mouth at the thoughts of nuclear war….sadist much
@Lance Taylor: you wouldn’t know ‘intelligence’ if it walked up and but you. Ffs.
I’ve got a Vlad feeling about this.
@Gerald O’Reilly: don’t be russian to conclusions.
Everybody blames the Russians…
I blame the parents…
@Gerry Dornan: I blame violent video games
@Gearoid MacEachaidh:
I blame gangsta rap
Once again the Rus did it war mongers are out pointing their digits, give it a rest
@087 bed: they just projecting because they hate their lives so much and they want nuclear war to end it all.
More likely sabotage (Russian) no ? !!!
@Phillip Smyth: dope.
Word on the street is, the tories did it in response to welfare cuts! Makes sense alright!
Petrov and Boshirov went to see Big Ben this time. The excursion was a success.
@Jack Hayes: Colonel Anatolily Vladimirovich Chepiga (awarded the Hero of Russia medal by Putin) and Dr Anatolily Mishkin are their names. GRU Officers of the Headquarters at Khoroshevskoye Shosse 76b Moscow. Don’t forget Dawn Surges was killed by Novichok discarded by the assassination team, disguised as a bottle of Nina Ricci perfume:
On the plus side,much less pollution for a few days.
Can’t believe the don’t have a back up generator, power outages can happen quite regularly on sites like this. I know of several shopping centres and individual supermarkets that have.
@Be Lucky: yeah. Because a supermarket is the same as one of the world’s biggest airports.
You should apply to run the place.
Russian intelligence!
@sakk sa:
What’s that.
Are some people so brainwashed that they are trying to blame Russia on this . Dooooh talk about sheep mentality .
Propaganda does work
@BL Music: Yes we all know. Russia would NEVER carry out acts of terrorism, poisoning or sabotage in UK or Europe.
I’d say the people of Hounslow, Isleworth and other places in the flight paths of Heathrow must be in awe again at the silence. They don’t get it much… except for 9/11, COVID lockdown type silences.
“currently no indication of foul play but investigators are keeping an “open mind” So would I
No back up generator?Switched to bio-mass from Diesel in 2021.Guess what.Failed.Zero emission is more like zero chance of anything working.Madness
ISIS are regaining strength in Syria. They made several successful raids on prisons in Northern Syria to free their members because the current Islamist government of HTS doesn’t really care and are too busy massacring Christians and innocent civilians without any trial. I wouldn’t be surprised if it came out that they engineered this attack. We know that the counter-terrorism police have been sent into to investigate the alleged arson and it would fit the modus operandi of ISIS to launch a very public attack to announce that they are back. Western countries, especially America, made a huge mistake not sending in soldiers to Syria in the immediate aftermath of Bashar Al-Assad being toppled in order to keep the peace and make sure that terrorist groups don’t gain a foothold again.
@William Jennings: remember when we were told the Arab Spring were the good guys . A few weeks ago the rebels in Syria were the darlings of our media . Not so rosy looking now . Even the Taliban were in vogue in the ‘80s when they were fighting the dreaded Russkies .
@The Rossie: Yeah I remember that well. What an absolute joke. All of the Arab Spring rebels were funded by Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood to destabilise the region and allow Salafi Islam to spread more rapidly. Just like anyone with at least two braincells to rub together, I recognised that Bashar Al-Assad was a brutal dictator who was responsible for killing nearly 500,000 of his fellow countrymen. However, I never hopped on the HTS bandwagon either and I was shocked as Western media fawned over a group that used to be a prescribed terrorist organisation. You can recognise the brutality of the Assad regime while also condemning Islamism in all its forms as a threat to basic fundamental rights everywhere. People seem to think that the two are mutually exclusive for some reason.
@William Jennings: people are only interested in a good guy / bad guy narrative and the media push it . The background of this new leader suggests bad guy / worse guy .
Protests in Turkey. May we expect any news?
Seems very odd that one substation knocks out the whole infrastructure and was there no further back up systems in place. seems penny pinching in its initial design or more likely well known people that know how to disable an entire infrastructure or a black ops by the current government at play.
@Ailbhe MacThomais: no diesel generators or battery power to keep systems alive. An international hub crippled by a sub station fire. I will admit I don’t fully understand how the electricity grid operates in terms of substations only that a substation blew and went on fire here in Wexford last year and knocked out a load of houses but hours later everything was back up and running.
So it wasn’t the Russians, just stop oil, transgender activists or the Muslims. All the conspiracy theorists here must be fuming
Test
Terriable such a fiere …
@peter willekens: Middle English, I like it.
And now, “Taxpayer money can be used for car repairs for eligible persons, including Ukrainian refugees, the Department of Social Protection has confirmed to Gript.”
have your say