The resumption of flights in Heathrow after the fire station fire closed the airport

Heathrow Airport in London was immersed in chaos after a fire at an electrical sub -station that closed operations in one of the busiest air centers in Europe, forcing the airport to cancel or transfer more than 1,000 flights on Friday and remove a global group of air travel.

The CEO of Heathrow, Thomas and Oldby, described the turmoil as “unprecedented”, reporting on Friday that the airport lost strength equal to a medium -sized city, and although the backup transmission transformer had worked as it should, there was not enough to operate the entire airport.

Flights were resumed late on Friday, but Mr. Wablby said: “We expect to go back in full work, so by 100 percent on a normal day” by Saturday.

The British authorities said that the anti -terrorist police will lead the investigation into the fire case, which broke out at an electrical sub -station in northern Hyde, northeast of Heathrow. But the Metropolitan police in London said later on Friday, “After the initial evaluation, We do not deal with this incident as suspiciousAlthough inquiries are still continuing. “

It was very early on Friday calculating the exact cost of interruption. However, the power outage raised questions about the flexibility of the largest airport in Britain and why it seemed to be dependent on one electrical station.

The residents of the Hayes neighborhood, near the airport, described two loud bangs and seeing a “huge ball of flame” shooting in the sky Thursday evening. Minutes later, the airport said it was closing all air traffic, the flights received, and the passengers were sent in Heathrow to the house. The close population has also been evacuated.

By Friday morning, the roads surrounding the power plant were cordoned off, and a helicopter meat above. The strange stillness has come down to Heathrow. The corridors were empty, the check offices were calm, the digital airline information screens were empty, and the corridors were lightly lit by emergency lighting. The calm, which was unprecedented, was even during the early weeks of the Korona virus.

Britain’s national network said on Friday afternoon that it has reshaped its network to partially restore power in Heathrow on a temporary basis. The London Fire Brigade said on Friday that the sub -station was carrying 25,000 liters of cooling oil, which led to a large fire and made it difficult to extinguish it. The brigade said that about 5 percent of the fire was still burning by Friday evening.

Airport ending Dozens of flights from the United States, which lands away from its original destination, resulted in dozens of flights from the United States. They were converted to airports in Glasgow, Madrid and even Happy Valley-Gore BayA small town in Newfoundland County and Labrador Canadian.

John Connor, 22, sat at the Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey on Friday, waiting for in vain to reach England in the afternoon abroad for two years.

“We sat on the plane for five hours before they said the flight had been stopped,” he said. He added: “I am trying to get a plane somewhere – Paris, Dublin, anywhere else.” “We are told straight no.”

The recovered travelers brought social media to ask the airlines about the administration of canceled flights and the upcoming departures, Claim In the posts on X that airlines applications were left behind in notifying passengers about cancellation Customer service cannot be accessed over the phone.

Some travelers in Europe have been urged to think about traveling with railways. After discovering that his journey from Heathrow was canceled, Philip Kyzon, 58, was from Chester, Pennsylvania, improvisation while trying to move from London to Dublin on a business trip. He took a train to Wales and then a phrase from the coastal town of Holiheid to the Irish capital. Many European and American travelers met the same.

Minutes after his arrival in Dublin, he said, referring to the Comedy Steve Martin John Candy in 1987: “It was a plane, traces and real absolute cars,” referring to the comedy Steve Martin John Candy in 1987.

Some aircraft had already in the air to turn. Jenny Lashnas, who was traveling to London from Los Angeles with her sister and her two -year -old niece, said about four hours from the trip, the pilot announced that they would have to return.

“Everyone was very calm, and I think it was nice because we were all trapped in a plane,” said Lady Lashnas, 31.

Some airlines said they will make exemptions allowing free reformulation, including British Airways, Delta Airlinesand US Airlines and United Airways. A spokesman for Delta said that the airline will return the cost of traveling to London by train to passengers whose flights were transferred to Amsterdam.

Cirium, a flight data company, estimated that up to 290,000 passengers can be affected by the closure of Heathrow.

By late Friday, many flights landed in Heathrow, where the airport began to return to life, about 16 hours after the fire. He was the first to touch under the British Airways plane. She had traveled from Gatwick Airport in London after it was converted there from its original destination, Singapore, according to the flight tracking service.

A spokeswoman for Heathrow said that the airport was working first to restore “return flights and transport aircraft”, as he sought to dismantle a day of broken service. The officials said that the airlines will make the priority of transporting aircraft and teams and bringing flights to other cities.

The British Ministry of Transport has said it has lifted temporary restrictions on night flights to reduce congestion during the resumption of Heathro Airport, regular operations.

But the CEO of British Airways, Sean Doyle, warned that the closure of Heathrow will have a “great impact” on the airline customers in the coming days. He added that British Airways was appointed to operate more than 670 flights carrying about 107,000 customers on Friday, and similar numbers were planned during the weekend.

He said: “We have airline colleagues and aircraft in the cabin and the aircraft currently in the locations where we have not planned.”

The Heathrow crisis is likely to disturb the movement of people, but also the flow of goods. The supply chain experts said this closing the decisive airline center, even for a short period, will lead to a logistical delay and headache of many companies that ship products through Heathrow.

Heathrow has runways and four stations that serve more than 230 destinations in 90 countries. Last year, about 83.9 million passengers and 1.7 million tons of goods were transported across the airport. It is the third largest airport center in Western Europe, measured by metric tons that are shipped. The goods went worth 200 billion pounds ($ 258 billion) through Heathrow in 2023, or about five of the value of the British merchandise trade.

“The goods around the world move in an accurate and timing in a daily basis,” said Ben Farrell, CEO of the Institute Carted, for purchases and supply, a global network of supply chain in London. “Any disturbances on any part of this leads to an effect on another place.”

Experts said British companies are likely to be more affected. Eitan Boukman, chief marketing official at Freightos, a digital shipping market, said that global trade can be dealt with by other large airports in Europe.

Mr. Wablby, CEO of Heathrow, apologized to travelers for the closure and said that the airport was good to resume flights on Friday evening, given the scope of power outages.

Heathrow’s closure came 15 years after the most severe air travel in Europe, when a volcano in Iceland sent the miles of ash to heaven and Blind travel for millionsIncluding in Heathrow.

The ash cloud is based on more than 100,000 Trips For a week for nearly a week in April 2010, as it was drifted throughout northern Europe. The aviation industry losses were estimated at volcanic turmoil at $ 1.7 billion.

Reports previously contributed Christine Chunand Michael Levinsonand Michael deand Peter Evisand Christopher stomachand Evan Benand Stephen Castleand Niraj Chockeand Cellan Yensu and Claire Musa.