Air India Flights Among 1,351 Affected By Fire In London, Airport Shutdown

An estimated 1,351 flights, including those operated by Air India, were cancelled or diverted Friday after London’s Heathrow airport shut down for the day. This was after a fire at an electrical substation in the western part of the city triggered a widespread power outage.

There is no word yet on when power will be restored to the airport, authorities told the BBC.

Apart from chaos at Heathrow – one of the busiest airports in the world and largest of five serving London and nearby areas – more than 16,000 homes in the UK capital lost power.

As many as 120 flights were in the air over Heathrow, either having just taken off or about to land.

Among those due were the AI129 service from Mumbai and the AI161 from Delhi. The former will return and the latter has been diverted to Frankfurt in Germany, the Indian carrier said in a statement.

“All our remaining flights to and from London Heathrow, including AI111 (another Delhi-London service) have been cancelled for 21 March. We will update about resumption as soon as we have information.”

Flights to and from London’s Gatwick, however, will be unaffected, and the airport, which is about 60km southeast of Heathrow, has said it will accept flights diverted from Heathrow.

The fire that affected Heathrow and swathes of the UK capital was at a substation in Hayes in the city’s Hillingdon borough. As many as 16,000 homes were left without electricity after the blaze, the Scottish and Southern Electricity Network, which supplies power to 3.8 million homes across the UK, said.

The London Fire Brigade deployed 10 fire engines and 70 firefighters to control the fire.