March 21, 2025, 4:45 p.m. ET - Heathrow Airport experienced significant chaos following a fire at an electrical substation that led to the cancellation or diversion of more than 1,000 flights. This incident impacted one of the world's busiest air travel hubs, severely disrupting operations.
Heathrow's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, characterized the situation as “unprecedented,” indicating that power loss on the scale of a midsize city was experienced. Despite backup systems operating effectively, they could not entirely compensate for the outage affecting the airport.
The British counterterrorism police are conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire, which erupted northeast of the airport in North Hyde. However, the Metropolitan Police later confirmed that they do not currently consider the incident suspicious, though their inquiries continue.
While it remains too early to determine the financial implications of this disruption, concerns have been raised regarding the airport's dependence on a single electrical substation, highlighting possible vulnerabilities in its infrastructure. Woldbye expressed optimism, stating that Heathrow expects to fully resume normal operations by Saturday.
Heathrow's chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, characterized the situation as “unprecedented,” indicating that power loss on the scale of a midsize city was experienced. Despite backup systems operating effectively, they could not entirely compensate for the outage affecting the airport.
The British counterterrorism police are conducting an investigation into the cause of the fire, which erupted northeast of the airport in North Hyde. However, the Metropolitan Police later confirmed that they do not currently consider the incident suspicious, though their inquiries continue.
While it remains too early to determine the financial implications of this disruption, concerns have been raised regarding the airport's dependence on a single electrical substation, highlighting possible vulnerabilities in its infrastructure. Woldbye expressed optimism, stating that Heathrow expects to fully resume normal operations by Saturday.
