Fire Closes Heathrow Airport; More Than 100 U.S.-UK Flights Diverted Or Canceled & L.A. Departures Turned Back
deadline.comMore than 1,300 flights, carrying an estimated 145,000 passengers, due to land or depart at London’s Heathrow Airport were either canceled or diverted on Friday after a nearby fire wiped out its power supply.
The disruption began in the early hours of Friday UK time following a massive blaze in North Hyde Electricity Substation in Hayes, some five miles from the airport, which is one of the busiest aviation hubs in the world after Atlanta, Dubai and Tokyo.
According to data on air traffic monitor Flightradar24, diversions and cancellations began at 4.45 a.m. local time with a British Airways Johannesburg flight the first to be impacted as it was diverted to London’s other main airport of Gatwick.
The first early-morning arrivals out of the U.S. were not so lucky with a BA flight out of Boston and a United Airlines plane out of New York landing in Ireland’s Shannon Airport instead.
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