London Heathrow Airport – One of the most busiest airports in the world – resumed some flights after he had closed most of Friday after a fire caused a power failure in a nearby electrical substation. An estimated 200,000 travelers were affected by the shutdown.
The first aircraft landed around 6:30 p.m. local time, reported the Associated Press.
“As planned, we drive all flights, including additional flights, to connect the passengers again and re -position planes,” was an explanation on Heathrows website early Saturday morning.
British Airways, whose main hood is Heathrow, said Eight long -haul flights were released to leave on Friday evening.
The airport said that the fire on Thursday evening in an electrical substation that provided the airport “caused” a “caused”significant power failure“But on Friday afternoon, an airport spokesman said that the teams had” worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure quick recovery “and that the facility” was certainly able to start some flights today “. After the announcement, at least one plane taxiing could be seen.
“Please do not travel to the airport, unless your airline advised you to do this,” the explanation says. “We will now work with the airlines to repatriate the passengers that have been redirected to other airports in Europe. We hope to run a full company tomorrow and will soon provide further information.”
The spokesman noticed: “As the most busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, which is why it takes time.”
Heathrow had initially said that by the end of Friday, no flights would not go in or out, which warned that “considerable disorders in the coming days” expected.
Around 9 p.m. local time on Friday, about 5% of the fire was still burning near the airport, said the London fire brigade.
The London Metropolitan Police said Europe’s most busy airport.
The London fire brigade said on Friday that the fire was considered “non -playable” and that his investigation “is now” concentrated on electrical sales equipment “.
“In view of the location of the substation and the influence that this incident had on the critical national infrastructure, the command of the MET Counter Terrorism is now being commanded. This is due to the specialist resources and skills in this command that can minimize this examination in speed and identify the cause,” said the police in a statement.
The follow -up services showed that flights to Gatwick Airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport, were diverted at Paris Airport and Ireland’s Shannon Airport Airport. British respiratory tract In the past, the closure had a significant impact on its business and customers and added that it worked as soon as possible to update travelers from their options for the “next 24 hours and beyond”.
London fire brigade via Reuters
The FLIGHTRADAR24 -LIVE -Tracking website showed that at least 1,350 flights in and from Heathrow were affected. According to the online service, the top route by and from Heathrow is the connection with the New York JFK International Airport with 146 flights per week.
“I saw how the time on the screen was increased” BBC News. “I switched on my world map and started seeing a big turning turn and turned around and said to my husband: ‘I think we are turning.'”
Dunzello said her flight was redirected to Canada and she expected that she would return tank and to New York.
The effects of the Heathrow current failure probably lasted several days, so that thousands of passengers were forced to find alternative travel plans.
“We speak of several days of disorders to recover the aircraft and use them again to move the planned and disturbed passengers,” Aviation consultant John Strickland told The Associated Press and compared the failure with “a version of the 9/11 or the Icelandic Vulcanic Eruption” in 2010, which closes the European level.
“Heathrow is such a busy airport and full, there is no Wolde room to get out of this kind of things,” Strickland told the AP.
Great Britain’s National Rail Service Canceled services of and from Heathrow for the dayAlthough some passengers could still be seen to enter the airport on foot on Friday. They were rejected by the police.
Benjamin Cremel/AFP via Getty Images
The London fire brigade said 10 firefighters and around 70 firefighters were sent to tackle the fire at a substation near the airport in the city of Hayes in West London. It started late Thursday evening, and around 8 a.m. the brigade said that it was “under control, but we will stay on site all day”.
The power failure influenced “a large number of houses and local companies, and we work closely with our partners to minimize the disorder,” said deputy commissioner Pat Goulbourne in A opinionAnd added that firefighters had brought 29 people to safety in the nearby properties, and around 150 people were evacuated.
In a social media post, Scottish and southern electricity networks shared that the power failure affected more than 16,300 houses, but on Friday afternoon the National Grid Power Distributor said that the network “had been restored to all affected customers, including the ability to reuse the parts of the airport of the Heathrow airport, which were reused with” the fall in Hayes “.
“This is a preliminary solution while we carry out further work,” said National Grid and added: “We continue to work closely with everyone involved to manage this incident and focus on returning to normal level of resistance as soon as possible.”
The authorities said it was not clear what the fire in the substation had triggered, but the residents reported that the residents heard explosions.
“I was about 100 meters away from the explosion,” said the local resident Vaneca Sinclair to the BBC. She said she prepared herself in her house in front of the bed at around 11:30 p.m. on Thursday evening (7:30 p.m. East) when “suddenly this huge bang and the house trembled”.
“When the first explosion started … I literally ran out of the house,” said another resident, Savita Kapur, the BBC. She said she brought her older mother into her car to drive her to her sister’s house. “When I drove up my street, the second explosion went off and the whole floor was trembling.”
“We have to think hard for the BBC on Friday.
The Latest numbers This month is the fifth strongest airport in the world from the travel data provider OAG Aviation Show Show Heathrow. At the beginning of this year, It reported The busiest January, which serves an average of over 200,000 passengers per day per record of over 6.3 million passengers. More than 1.2 million of these passengers traveled between Great Britain and the USA
contributed to this report.
