New theory behind fire that shut Heathrow and left 200,000 passengers stranded

American Airlines has confirmed that it expects to run its full schedule of flights to and from Heathrow tomorrow.

But it has advised customers to check their flight status before going to the airport.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said the fire at the electricity substation near Heathrow was an ‘unprecedented situation’ beyond the airport’s control.

But she says there will be an investigation into how the fire started and Heathrow’s decision to close operations for the day.

She also said that counter-terrorism services will be involved because the fire happened so close to a critical infrastructure site.

The first flight to depart Heathrow Airport since the closure has now left.

The British Airways BAW259 flight took off at 8.58pm and is heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Pictures from inside Heathrow Airport show the first few people in the terminal waiting to get their flights.

A photographer at the scene says only passengers with boarding passes are being allowed in.

London Fire Brigade has said that fire safety officers are still at the scene to follow up various lines of inquiry, with work continuing in the coming weeks.

In a statement, it offered thanks to firefighters and control officers ‘for their courage and professionalism in bringing this incident under control in what were very challenging circumstances’.

The fire at the electricity substation which led to Heathrow Airport’s closure on Friday ‘is believed to be non-suspicious’ and the investigation will ‘focus on the electrical distribution equipment’, London Fire Brigade said.

Meanwhile Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said there are currently no suggestion of foul play in the fire and that there would be lessons to learn from the incident.

Heathrow is expected to run a full schedule on Saturday.

Around 200,000 passengers have been affected by the closure of what is Europe’s busiest airport.

Mr Woldbye said: ‘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 backup systems have been working as they should but they are not sized to run the entire airport.’

Some flights from airports like New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare are resuming to London Heathrow.

These are expected to take off in a few hours and land in the early morning on Saturday.

Virgin Atlantic says it expects to run a ‘near full schedule’ tomorrow, for its departures and arrivals from Heathrow airport.

The airline says the substation fire had a ‘significant impact’ and all flights due to leave Heathrow today are cancelled.

The airline has also shared the current list of cancelled flights for tomorrow which include:

• VS026 New York JFK to Heathrow
• VS450 Johannesburg to Heathrow
• VS165 Heathrow to Jamaica

The first flight has landed at Heathrow since the airport closed due to loss of power that cancelled thousands of flights.

The British Airways BAW35JG flight arrived from Gatwick Airport and hit the Heathrow tarmac just after 6pm UK time.

Mr Woldbye continued by saying that today’s outage is ‘as big as it gets’.

He said: ‘This is unprecedented, it’s never happened before.

‘We are sorry for the incident – it was caused by outside factors.’

He said the power loss was equivalent to that of ‘a mid-size city’.

Mr Woldbye added: ‘We lost a major part of our power, we lost one of our three substations.

‘We cannot guard ourselves 100%.

‘It was a very difficult decision… we could not safely operate the airport.’

Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of Heathrow Airport, has confirmed that incoming flights from Europe will be prioritised this afternoon, followed by some departures from Heathrow in the evening.

He said: ‘That is about it. We’re talking about very few aircraft tonight.

‘We expect to be back in full operation tomorrow … as a normal day.

London Fire Brigade has said that the oil-fuelled fire at the substation is still burning, more than 15 hours after it started.

It said in a statement: ‘Approximately 5% remains alight in isolated hotspots.

‘We will maintain a presence at the site until the incident is resolved.’

‘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.’

London Fire Brigade’s last update was at 11am this morning, when it confirmed that 10% of the fire was still burning.

The last update we had from the fire brigade was at 11am, when we learnt that 10% of the fire was still burning. 

British Airways has announced that its first few flights will start departing from Heathrow from 7pm this evening.

In a statement, the airline said: ‘We are now urgently contacting customers to let them know so they can make their way to the airport from 5pm.’

The following flights will depart from the airport this evening:

• BA055 to Johannesburg
• BA057 to Johannesburg
• BA011 to Singapore
• BA259 to Riyadh
• BA045 to Cape Town
• BA059 to Cape Town
• BA015 to Sydney via Singapore
• BA249 to Buenos Aires via Rio de Janeiro

‘We thank all of our customers for their patience and continue to ask them to keep checking ba.com for the latest flight information,’ it says.

Some operations are set to resume ‘later today,’ Heathrow said in its latest update.

But these will be flights to repatriate some passengers and relocate aircraft rather than resuming full customer operations, it warned.

Full operations could restart tomorrow, Heathrow said.

Here is Heathrow’s full statement.

‘Our teams have worked tirelessly since the incident to ensure a speedy recovery. We’re pleased to say we’re now safely able to begin some flights later today.

‘Our first flights will be repatriation flights and relocating aircraft. Please do not travel to the airport unless your airline has advised you to do so.

‘We will now work with the airlines on repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe. 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. As the busiest airport in Europe, Heathrow uses as much energy as a small city, therefore getting back to a full and safe operation takes time. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this incident.’

Aviation expert Bernard Lavelle told Metro that the impacts from today’s disruption could have some knock-on effects until this time next week.

Big Jet TV’s Jerry Dyer, who usually films jets making a landing at Heathrow Airport, continued to film his popular live YouTube – despite the empty runway.

Thousands of fans still tuned in to watch his live stream today as Jerry made his regular appearance near the Heathrow safety perimeter.

He said ‘there is nothing, nothing here’ as he zoomed in on the desolate runway and hangars with some parked planes visible in the distance.

He said it was ‘surprising’ that Heathrow Airport didn’t have its own independent power station.

The fire happening in the early hours of the morning was a thin silver lining, Jerry said.

‘Imagine what would have happened if it was in the middle of the day,’ he told on his live stream.

Metro visited Jerry in January to take a look behind the Big Jet TV.

Electricity has reportedly resumed at some parts of Heathrow Airport after the massive power outage following the substation fire.

The lights are back on at Terminal T4 and the multi-storey car park lifts are working too.

However, this doesn’t mean that the airport has reopened yet and passengers should not travel to Heathrow in the meantime.

It is not known yet when operations will be up and running at Heathrow again, but we have approached the airport for an update.