LHR shutdown due to substation fire Friday 21 March

[markis10]

Due to a fire nearby LHR has electricity issues and will be closed all Friday.

Heathrow Airport is to remain shut until midnight due to a large fire at a nearby electricity substation.

A spokesperson said it was "experiencing a significant power outage across the airport" and warned passengers to stay away until further notice.

A statement said: "Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.

"To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025."

Heathrow Airport closed after 'significant power outage' due to nearby fire

One of the world's busiest airports is set to grind to a halt after a nearby fire and Heathrow bosses say major disruption could last days.

news.sky.com

 

[exLXCXFF]

QF9 being diverted to Charles Dr Gaulle due to LHR closure for 24 hours.

QF2 still heading to LHR but will have to be diverted to.

This will probably create havoc in QFs intl schedule, esp with the A380…

 

[Comoman]

This is going to cause absolute mayhem! Can't believe there's not enough generators to provide a rudimentary service.

That's going to be a lot of long-haul diversions to somewhere!

 

[OZDUCK]

Some more details :-

Heathrow Airport is closing all day Friday because of a large fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it.

The airport is experiencing a "significant power outage" because of the fire, a statement from Heathrow said.

"To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23:59 on 21 March," it added.

Heathrow Airport closes all day over power outage

It comes in response to a "significant" outage linked to a fire at a nearby electrical substation.

www.bbc.com

 

[anat0l]

This is going to cause absolute mayhem! Can't believe there's not enough generators to provide a rudimentary service.

I'm not in the generator business, but I thought most generators in a commercial sense were to allow graceful shutting down of things, rather than just immediate pull the plug.

Even hospitals would only use generators to finish essential and life threatening tasks; they wouldn't necessarily continue business as usual at full tilt.

That's going to be a lot of long-haul diversions to somewhere!

Or just plain cancelled.

Can't imagine a huge number of longhaul flights requesting diversion and operation out of Gatwick or Stansted....let alone begging Manchester, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or the like for space to land.

This is going to be taxing for EU261 obligations.

 

[Comoman]

I'm not in the generator business, but I thought most generators in a commercial sense were to allow graceful shutting down of things, rather than just immediate pull the plug.

Even hospitals would only use generators to finish essential and life threatening tasks; they wouldn't necessarily continue business as usual at full tilt.

Or just plain cancelled.

Can't imagine a huge number of longhaul flights requesting diversion and operation out of Gatwick or Stansted....let alone begging Manchester, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam or the like for space to land.

This is going to be taxing for EU261 obligations.

This is interesting reading - LHR arrivals:

Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map | Flightradar24

The world’s most popular flight tracker. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information.

www.flightradar24.com

Not surprisingly there's an awful lot of flights in the air EnRoute to LHR already - 120 according to FR24.

 

[ABC1]

QF9 being diverted to Charles Dr Gaulle due to LHR closure for 24 hours.

QF2 still heading to LHR but will have to be diverted to.

This will probably create havoc in QFs intl schedule, esp with the A380…

QF1 is also CDG bound. Eurostar fares about to skyrocket

 

[Himeno]

I'm not in the generator business, but I thought most generators in a commercial sense were to allow graceful shutting down of things, rather than just immediate pull the plug.

The generators at work only power lighting, ovens, scales and selected work stations/registers. Not the fridges/freezers. The generator is meant to give time to get current shopping completed, people above store notified and for the cause of the problem to get fixed/mitigated (eg, someone arriving to repair the fault, or a refrigerated trailer to arrive and stock to be moved into it).

 

[jrfsp]

QF1 is also CDG bound. Eurostar fares about to skyrocket

At least there are plenty of flights into other London airports

 

[Gold Member]

Surely the Airlines will claim force majeure and Act of God to weasel out of the impending explosion of EU261 claims? In fact, I wonder how many airlines have updated their flights and notified passengers yet with such short notice from LHR.

I get the feeling the Chunnel might be a little busy between CDG/nearby EU airports and St Pancras for a few days.

 

[torks]

Surely the Airlines will claim force majeure and Act of God to weasel out of the impending explosion of EU261 claims? In fact, I wonder how many airlines have updated their flights and notified passengers yet with such short notice from LHR.

I get the feeling the Chunnel might be a little busy between CDG/nearby EU airports and St Pancras for a few days.

The airport closing due to no electricity would be 100% outside the airlines control so no EU261. Still an obligation for hotels etc during the delay though.

 

[Gold Member]

The airport closing due to no electricity would be 100% outside the airlines control so no EU261. Still an obligation for hotels etc during the delay though.

Agreed. My EU261 assertion related to all other related expenses.

These are the days when travel insurance pays off if the Airlines don’t look after you.

 

[justinbrett]

I’m assuming some arrivals can still land. QF1 is over Belgium and doesn’t look like it’s diverting.

The airfield itself will have UPS and generators. The terminals are the issue.

 

[Cynicor]

I can’t imagine the power draw of an airport, but generators are a nonsense idea. Look at the size of what you need to power a simple fridge.
Even planes draw power from the airport until they depart.
Scale the airport down to essential only and it would be a battery just to keep the lights on. Conveyors wouldn’t move so everything would stop anyway.

 

[Comoman]

I’m assuming some arrivals can still land. QF1 is over Belgium and doesn’t look like it’s diverting.

The airfield itself will have UPS and generators. The terminals are the issue.

QF1 is diverting to CDG (and it's over Germany?). Heathrow on Twitter is saying totally closed.

 

[markis10]

I’m assuming some arrivals can still land. QF1 is over Belgium and doesn’t look like it’s diverting.

The airfield itself will have UPS and generators. The terminals are the issue.

QF1 is diverting to CDG

 

[markis10]

I can’t imagine the power draw of an airport, but generators are a nonsense idea.

That’s why every primary airport in Australia has enough gen sets to operate completely off grid

 

[luckypierre]

That’s why every primary airport in Australia has enough gen sets to operate completely off grid

And have generator backed UPS systems for critical infrastructure/services such as ATC.

 

[justinbrett]

QF1 is diverting to CDG (and it's over Germany?). Heathrow on Twitter is saying totally closed.

Ah, they hadn’t made the left turn when I posted that. Was maintaining FL400 and headed straight for LHR.

Eurostar is going to be busy today!

 

[Melburnian1]

QF1 is also CDG bound. Eurostar fares about to skyrocket

Eurostar is often booked out in normal circumstances, as the vast majority (IIRC >80 per cent) of travel between London and Paris is by it not the airlines. It also serves Lille (France, Brussels and recently resumed operating to Amsterdam after railway station works concluded.

I've travelled on it numerous times (mainly offpeak but once an early Friday arvo) and my car has always been chock-a-block.

It may be difficult for ES to put on extra trains at short notice as it's not the sole user of Getlink's Chunnel.