Thousands in limbo as just 8 flights leave Heathrow in day of chaos… after airport boss apologises for crippling closure
THOUSANDS of passengers remain in limbo after only EIGHT flights left Heathrow Airport due to an "unprecedented" closure.
A handful of British Airways flights were able to depart on Friday evening after a huge inferno at Hayes electrical substation in West London caused the airport to lose power.
Heathrow's boss apologised on Friday, admitting backup generators were never powerful enough to run the airport as mass cancellations ensued.
Thomas Woldbye described the blaze which knocked out an electricity substation as “as big as it gets for our airport”.
Thousands were left stranded after the chaotic scenes on Friday saw hundreds of flights cancelled.
However, a handful of flights managed to touch down in Heathrow Airport yesterday night.
And a number of flights also managed to get off the ground to depart the airport in what was a major boost after a day of dismay.
Most of those leaving did so after 7pm, while a couple of long haul arrivals were permitted a touch earlier.
British Airways BAW259 flight heading to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was the first flight to get off the ground at Heathrow.
Hours earlier, a British Airways jet touched down just after 6pm, about 18 hours after the substation blaze.
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More flights will hopefully be taking off and landing there in the next 24 hours, as the airport says it hopes to run a full service on Saturday.
Heathrow chief Mr Woldbye added: “We expect to be back in full operation (tomorrow), so 100% operation as a normal day.
“(Passengers) should come to the airport as they normally would. There’s no reason to come earlier.”
British Airways, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85 per cent of its scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday.
The airline would usually expect to run nearly 600 departures and arrivals on Saturday but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
A spokesman said: "We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex.
"We expect around 85% of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”
Restrictions on overnight flights were temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.
BA is the biggest operator at Heathrow, with 51 per cent of flights, including 341 scheduled inbound flights.
The fire at the electricity substation which caused the damage “is believed to be non-suspicious” according to the Met Police and London Fire Brigade.
The major power outage has seen more than 2,000 aircraft grounded and 145,000 passengers disrupted.
Images from last night showed Heathrow looking eerily empty but still functioning to some capacity.
Since the shutdown began, passengers have been redirected to airports across the country, including Manchester, Gatwick and Stansted.
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Travellers have also been diverted to Germany, France, and Ireland.
Follow our live blog below for updates:
BA expects to run '85% of flights'
British Airways, which has a major presence at Heathrow, said it expects to operate around 85% of its scheduled flights at the airport on Saturday.
The airline would usually expect to run nearly 600 departures and arrivals on Saturday but it is understood cancellations will be made, where possible, to high-frequency routes.
A spokesman said: “We are planning to operate as many flights as possible to and from Heathrow on Saturday, but to recover an operation of our size after such a significant incident is extremely complex.
“We expect around 85% of our Saturday Heathrow schedule to run, but it is likely that all travelling customers will experience delays as we continue to navigate the challenges posed by Friday’s power outage at the airport.”
Late night flights land
Pictures show a number of late-night flights touching down at Heathrow on Friday.
More flights will hopefully be taking off and landing there in the next 24 hours, as the airport says it hopes to run a full service on Saturday.
'Lessons will be learned'
The UK Civil Aviation Authority have had their say on Friday's chaotic events.
A spokesperson said: "The Civil Aviation Authority regulates Heathrow from a safety perspective as well as from the point of view of protecting the interests of consumers.
"We require Heathrow to have a resilience plan to cover periods of disruption, and we also require it to work with other parties at the airport to manage and recover from it.
"There will of course be lessons learned from this event. Until we know more about the detail, we cannot comment further."
First flights take off
A British Airways flight to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has left Heathrow Airport tonight.
It's one of eight flights the airline said would depart from the airport this evening.
Flight BA259 took off at 20:58 GMT.
No foul play
Commander Simon Messinger who is leading the Met Police response to the incident said: "We continue to work with various partners in response to the serious fire at an electricity sub-station in Hayes in the early hours of this morning.
“A number of local officers have been deployed to the area to provide support, help and advice to local residents and businesses and help keep the local community safe.
“We would like to thank the public and those directly affected by the consequences of the fire for their patience and understanding while the important firefighting activity continues."
He continued: “Local officers will continue to be deployed across Hillingdon, Hounslow and Ealing to provide the local community and partners with any assistance. Anyone with concerns over their safety should talk to a local officer.
“In addition to this, the investigation into the cause of the fire remains in its early stages. After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although enquiries do remain ongoing.
“Due to the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are leading our enquiries into this matter.
“Various specialist investigators continue to examine the scene and it is expected to take some time before full assessments can be completed.
“Officers will continue to work alongside colleagues on the investigation, but as we have stated above, at this stage, there remains no indication of any foul play."
Blaze 'non-suspicious'
The fire at the electricity substation which led to Heathrow Airport’s closure today “is believed to be non-suspicious”.
The investigation will “focus on the electrical distribution equipment”, London Fire Brigade said.
Heathrow had cancelled all flights for the day but was able to resume some after electricity was restored.
Flight restrictions lifted
The Department for Transport has temporarily lifted restrictions on overnight flights to help ease congestion at Heathrow.
There is usually an annual limit of nighttime take-offs and landings between 11.30pm and 6am, which caps the amount of noise the airport can make at night.
The DfT also says it is allowing passengers to use rail tickets flexibly to help.
First flight lands
The first plane has landed at London’s Heathrow Airport since a fire at an electrical substation closed Europe’s busiest air travel hub.
The British Airways jet BAW35JG touched down tonight just after 6pm about 18 hours after the airport was closed due to a massive power outage.
Heathrow had cancelled all flights for the day but was able to resume some after electricity was restored.
Credit: AP 
Credit: AP Heathrow boss backup generators admission
Thomas Woldbye said: "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."
The west London airport initially announced it would be closed until 11.59pm but later said repatriation flights and a handful of British Airways long-haul flights would resume Friday evening.
"This is unprecedented, it's never happened before," Mr Woldbye added.
"We are sorry for the incident - it was caused by outside factors."
Credit: PA
Heathrow boss apologises for shutdown
Chief Executive Thomas Woldbye described the blaze today as “as big as it gets for our airport” and that “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
He also said that a back-up transformer failed and power supplies had to be restructured to restore electricity enough to power what is described as a “mid-sized city”.
Mr Woldbye added: “I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire."
British Airways confirms eight long-haul flights
British Airways has been given clearance for eight long-haul flights to depart Heathrow Airport today from 7pm, the airline said in a statement.
Passengers hit out at being "failed" by flight companies
By Brendan McFadden
SIBLINGS from Melbourne, Australia who are stranded in the UK due to the power outage after "saying goodbye" to their dying granny have accused Etihad Airways of abandoning them.
Macauley Howard, 29, Karissa Davies, 37, and her two young sons Riley, 11, and Hudson, 6, have this week been spending time with their relative in Norwich who is battling pancreatic cancer after she was told by doctors last Friday she does not have long to live.
They claim after their 11.30am flight to Oz was axed, both the airline's and airport's customer service teams denied they are responsible for booking them on a new flight, and Etihad have refused to offer them money towards accommodation.
Karissa told how they have "spent hours on the phone" with advisors who kept ''passing the buck'', before Etihad finally agreed to book them on a flight on Monday.
She said: "Nobody seems to be accepting responsibility, " Etihad said to contact Heathrow and they have told us to contact the airline. We have had a nightmare of a day.''
Macauley said he was left baffled after one Etiad advisor told him to report the issue at a customer service desk at Heathrow despite her stressing the airport is closed.
Karissa also criticised Etihad for not sending out staff to assist passengers who have been stranded at the airport, saying: "Nobody is helping people on the ground here.''
The pair, who were born and raised in Norwich before emigrating, have been staying at a Holiday Inn on Bath Road near the airport for the past two nights in rooms priced £179, but have been forced to check out as the only rooms available at the hotel now cost £569 per night, which is well over the budget.
The pair are desperately hunting online for a cheaper hotel to stay at, while continuing to ask Etihad to book them on a flight back home sooner - either with their airline or another airline they work with.
Karissa said: "This is an emergency trip as it is, we have not prepared for this type of expense.''
Some flights will resume later today
Heathrow Airport said it is “safely able to begin some flights later today”, focusing on repatriation flights for passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe, a spokesperson said.
An eyewitness heard two explosions at the substation
UMI Sheikh was walking home from Asda shortly after 11pm when she witnessed the explosion.
She told The Sun: “I saw a light in the sky and there was a loud boom.
“The sky went orange for a split second. It was like night turned to day.
“You couldn’t see the flames at first - there was just so much smoke…
“I was absolutely petrified.”The careers advisor, 23, believes she was one of the first to ring emergency services.
She added: “The fire brigade turned up a few minutes later but they didn’t seem to realise it was in the substation at first, they thought it was a house fire.
“They were going into the apartment block next door and wandering around. When they realised it was in the substation they started telling people to clear out.
“People were standing in the road with kids and babies and running away.
“It was hectic from then on.”
Umi, from Hayes, West London, said there was a second explosion 45 minutes later, which was when the power cut out.
Local schools shutter
Six local schools have been closed following the substation fire in Hayes, Hillingdon Council said.
An update on the council’s website said that Nestles Avenue Early Years Centre, Pinkwell Children’s Centre, Pinkwell Primary School, Botwell House Catholic Primary School, Dr Triplett’s C of E Primary School and The Global Academy were all shut.
The M4 is closed between junction three and four while local bus services are subject to diversions and cancellations, it added.
Heathrow closure 'unprecedented'
In a video message to passengers, British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle said: "This is an unprecedented situation, and we have not seen a closure of Heathrow of this scale for many years.
"Unfortunately, it will have a huge impact on all of our customers flying with us over the coming days.
"Our colleagues are working extremely hard to support our customers with the most up to date information in a live and evolving situation."
He added: "To give you an idea of the scale of disruption we face which we're working to minimise, today we were due to operate more than 670 flights carrying around 107,000 customers, with similar numbers planned over the weekend."
Credit: Reuters Experienced electrical engineer reveals source of blame
Tom Watters pointed the finger at the catastrophic failure of an "oil-filled transformer" for the blast, MailOnline .
Watters has worked on critical infrastructure around the world and cited "very old" equipment and a "lack of investment" for the chaos.
"This looks like a very old transformer and it's surprising that such an old piece of critical equipment was still in service. I assume a lack of investment is the reason," he said.
"The design of the substation while being ok is also very old style. Modern substations are normally enclosed using gas as the insulation."
Dad devastated after travel plans scuppered
By Brendan McFadden
Murali Krishna planned to travel to his native India this weekend to watch his favourite cricket team play and see his family has been left devastated after the outage forced him to miss the fixture.
Murali Krishna, of LA, treated his brothers and nephews to tickets to Sunrisers Hyderabad's first fixture in the new Indian Premier League season against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday - at a cost of $1000 (£772).
The medical equipment firm owner was due to leave Heathrow on a Lufthansa flight this morning, before arriving in the city tomorrow afternoon - but he now won't make the match because his rescheduled flight will not arrive in the city until Monday.
"I feel at a loss right now."
Interim solution to power outage found
A National Grid spokesperson said: "We're sorry for the disruption caused by a fire at our North Hyde substation and for the loss of power supplies in the area. Teams have been working around the clock to restore power as soon as possible.
"Working in partnership with the local network operator SSEN Distribution (SSEN), the network has been reconfigured to restore all customers impacted, including the ability to resupply the parts of Heathrow airport that are connected to North Hyde.
"This is an interim solution while we carry out further work at North Hyde to return the substation and our network to normal operation.
"We are continuing to work closely with all stakeholders to manage this incident, and are focused on returning to normal resilience levels as soon as possible."
Transport Secretary met with Heathrow boss
Heidi Alexander met with the airport's boss Thomas Woldbye earlier today.
She said: "This morning, I spoke with Heathrow airport's chief executive to hear the latest on the unprecedented power outage and I am reassured they're working tirelessly to reopen the airport as soon as possible.
"I would like to thank everyone involved in responding to this situation - particularly the emergency workers who have worked to contain the fire and keep everyone safe.
"I appreciate how disruptive this situation is for passengers, but until they hear otherwise the advice remains to avoid travelling to Heathrow."
Credit: Alamy Eurostar adding capacity
The company said it is adding extra capacity to its trains between London and Paris to assist airline passengers affected by Heathrow's closure.
It will operate two additional services in each direction on Friday.
They will have standard-class seating only, with an approximate capacity of 882 passengers per train.
Credit: Alamy
POWER BACK ON
US broadcasters mystified by explosion
Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said from the Fox and Friends studio: "What a mess, Friday and Spring Break."
A reporter who works at the broadcaster added: "You got it right, what a mess is correct."
Meanwhile, Fox rival CNN also wondered how such an incident could happen.
Presenter Isabel Rosales on the network's Early Start programme also weighed in: "What a major headache.
"So many questions that need to be answered and reflection that needs to happen on how a single substation could take out the back-up power source of such a critical airport."
Downing Street warns airport could be closed for DAYS
a No 10 spokesman said: "Well, it's clearly a fast-moving situation.
"It will be for emergency services and Heathrow to update on timescales for when this situation will be resolved. We do expect there will be significant direct disruption in the hours and days ahead."
He added: "The Department for Transport is working closely with Heathrow Airport, Nats (National Air Traffic Services) and all key operators to understand the situation and ensure a quick resolution so that the airport can reopen and flights resume as quickly as possible, and clearly we will do everything we can to support those affected and get things moving again."
Putin's puppet makes statement
Mad Vlad's crony Dmitry Medvedev penned a remark on X amid the Heathrow shut down.
"I'm looking forward to Russia being blamed for the Heathrow fire," he wrote.
"What are you waiting for, Starmer?"