London’s largest airport has been forced to close after a fire broke out at a substation less than 2 miles away, causing widespread power outages. Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at around 11.30pm on 20 March and the airport was closed at 2am on 21 March (local time).

Images of a massive fire forcing the airport to close

With more than 200,000 passengers passing through the airport every day, the chaos is expected to last through the weekend.

A Heathrow Airport spokesperson said: “Heathrow Airport is experiencing an airport-wide power outage due to a major fire at a nearby electricity substation. While the fire brigade is responding to the incident, we are still unclear when we will be able to reliably restore power. To ensure the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have had no choice but to close Heathrow until 23:59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not under any circumstances travel to the airport until it reopens. We will provide updates as we have further information on the resumption of operations. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure them that we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation.”

Heathrow closure will affect thousands of flights worldwide

FlightRadar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik said the unplanned closure of Heathrow Airport would disrupt flights around the world.

“Heathrow is one of the world’s major hubs,” he told the Telegraph.

“This will disrupt operations for airlines around the world.”

Flights scheduled to land at Heathrow have been diverted, with Flightradar24 saying this would affect at least 1,351 flights to and from Heathrow. That does not include flights that may be cancelled or delayed due to aircraft being misplaced. Many flights have now been diverted to other airports across Europe.

Source: Daily Mail