More than 1,350 are thought to have been impacted and 100 people evacuated
News Lee Grimsditch Nostalgia Writer 08:23, 21 Mar 2025
Over 1,300 flights at Heathrow Airport face disruption on Friday following the airport's closure due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation.
The blaze at the North Hyde electrical substation in west London led to power cuts for thousands and the evacuation of over 100 people. Heathrow, which relies on the substation for power, confirmed it was affected by the outage.
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FlightRadar24 reported that the shutdown would impact 1,350 flights, with 679 arrivals and 678 departures from Heathrow. At the time of the announcement, 120 flights were already en route to the airport. As the UK's busiest airport, Heathrow saw 83.9 million passengers in 2024.
The significant power failure struck parts of Hayes and Hounslow, affecting over 16,300 residences, said Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. Efforts to reinstate electricity have been made with the intent to remedy the situation by 3pm Friday, according to updates from the power company’s website.
A spokesperson for National Grid said that the fire caused damage to equipment and efforts were being made to "working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible".
The London Fire Brigade reported that, as of just before 6am, 10 fire engines and about 70 firefighters were still tackling the blaze at Nestles Avenue in Hayes, with parts of a transformer continuing to burn.
In response to the fire, approximately 150 people have been evacuated from nearby homes, and a safety cordon of 200 metres has been established.
Heathrow closed until the end of the day
Heathrow have now announced the airport will remain closed for the rest of the day following the electrical substation fire.
A spokesperson for Heathrow stated: "Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored."
They added: "To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
"We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation."
Where are all the flights heading to Heathrow going to land?
As chaos reigned in the skies, online tracking services recorded flights being rerouted to alternative airports including Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, and Ireland's Shannon Airport.
Numerous transatlantic voyages were compelled to reverse their courses, heading back to their Canadian and American points of departure.
Gatwick Airport has stepped in amidst the turmoil, confirming it received seven redirected aircraft from cities like Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town, and Doha, all initially bound for Heathrow. "We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required," a spokesperson for the airport declared.
"Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today."
Meanwhile, Shannon Airport substantiated claims of hosting six unexpected arrivals from destinations such as Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando, and Newark.
On the ground, the Heathrow Express was another victim of service disruption, announcing a full halt on Friday, while Hayes and Harlington station's closure persisted into the morning, per National Rail.
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