Flights have resumed at Heathrow Airport and a full service is expected on Saturday following an “unprecedented” loss of power caused by a nearby substation fire.

About 200,000 passengers were affected as flights were grounded throughout Friday, with inbound planes being diverted to other airports in Europe after flames ripped through the North Hyde plant in Hayes, west London, on Thursday evening.

The airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye apologised to stranded passengers and said the disruption was “as big as it gets for our airport” and that it could not guard itself “100%”.

The Met Police confirmed the fire was not believed to be suspicious.

The investigation will focus on the “electrical distribution equipment”, the force said.

British Airways announced eight of its long-haul flights had been cleared to leave Heathrow during Friday evening and it was “urgently contacting customers to let them know”.

Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.

Passengers have been advised to contact their airlines for the latest updates.

Mr Woldbye said that a back-up transformer had failed meaning systems had to be closed down in accordance with safety procedures so that power supplies could be restructured from two remaining substations to restore electricity enough to power the airport.

Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow, including British Airways, Air Canada and United Airlines.

An airport spokesperson said the first flights were focused on “repatriating the passengers who were diverted to other airports in Europe… and relocating aircraft”.

Mr Woldbye said: “I’d like to stress that this has been an incident of major severity. It’s not a small fire.

“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.”

Asked if there is a weak point in Heathrow’s power system, he said: “You can say that but of course contingencies of certain sizes we cannot guard ourselves against 100% and this is one of them.

“I mean, short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport.”

“This is unprecedented,” he added.

Mr Woldbye went on to say the airport expected to return to “100% operation” on Saturday.

(BBC News)

Heathrow Airport is closing all day Friday because of a large fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it.

The airport is experiencing a “significant power outage” because of the fire, a statement from Heathrow said.

“To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, Heathrow will be closed until 23:59 on 21 March,” it added.

“Passengers are advised not to travel to the airport and should contact their airline for further information. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

“Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored,” a Heathrow spokesperson said, adding that staff were “working as hard as possible to resolve the situation”.

Passengers should not travel to the airport “under any circumstances” until it reopens, they said.

Heathrow is the UK’s largest airport, handling around 1,300 landings and take-offs each day. A record 83.9 million passengers passed through its terminals last year.

The fire at the substation in Hayes, in west London, has left thousands of homes without power and caused around 150 people to be evacuated from surrounding properties.

Ten fire engines and around 70 firefighters have been sent to tackle the blaze, the London Fire Brigade (LFB) said.

A 200-metre cordon has been put in place as a precaution, and local residents have been advised to keep doors and windows closed because of a “significant amount of smoke”.

More than 16,300 homes have lost power in a large-scale outage cause by the fire, energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said on X.

“We’re aware of a widespread power cut affecting many of our customers around the Hayes, Hounslow and surrounding areas,” it added.

The LFB said it had received nearly 200 calls about the fire, which broke out late on Thursday night.

Emergency services were called to the scene at 23:23. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.

“This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible,” said LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulborne.

“This will be a prolonged incident, with crews remaining on scene throughout the night,” he added.

“As we head into the morning, disruption is expected to increase, and we urge people to avoid the area wherever possible.”

(BBC News)

The Malaysian cabinet has approved a fresh search for the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, more than a decade after the aircraft vanished.

The search will cover a 15,000 sq km area in the southern Indian Ocean, under a “no find, no fee” agreement with the exploration firm Ocean Infinity.

The company will receive $70m (£56m) if the wreckage is found, transport minister Loke Siew Fook announced.

Flight MH370 disappeared in 2014 with 239 people on board while travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Its disappearance is one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries, which continues to haunt the families of the passengers.

Despite extensive searches in the years since it vanished, no wreckage has been found. Previous efforts, including a multinational search that cost $150m (£120m), ended in 2017.

The governments of the three nations involved – Malaysia, Australia and China – said the search would only be resumed “should credible new evidence emerge” of the aircraft’s location.

A 2018 search for the wreckage by Ocean Infinity under similar terms ended unsuccessfully after three months.

In December, Malaysia’s government agreed in principle to resume the search. However, the final negotiations were not completed until March.

Malaysia’s final approval on Wednesday will now allow the search to begin.

Loke said in a statement: “The government is committed to continuing the search operation and providing closure for the families of the MH370 passengers.”

Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of 8 March 2014. Less than an hour after takeoff, it lost communication with air traffic control, and radar showed that it had deviated from its planned flight path.

Investigators generally agree that the plane crashed somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, though the reason for the crash remains unclear.

Pieces of debris, believed to be from the plane, have washed up on the shores of the Indian Ocean in the years following its disappearance.

The aircraft’s disappearance has given rise to a host of conspiracy theories, including speculation that the pilot had deliberately brought the plane down and claims that it had been shot down by a foreign military.

An investigation in 2018 into the aircraft’s disappearance found that the plane’s controls were likely deliberately manipulated to take it off course, but drew no conclusions behind it.

Investigators said at the time that “the answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found”.

The passengers included people from more than a dozen countries: just under two-thirds were Chinese nationals, followed by 38 Malaysians, with others from Australia, Indonesia, India, France, Ukraine, the US and several other nations.

Family members of missing Chinese MH370 passengers met with officials in Beijing earlier in March to discuss the renewed search for the wreckage and express their hopes for an independent search. Some relatives voiced their frustration over a lack of direct communication from the Malaysian authorities.

“It was promised that we would be informed immediately [but] we can only find out about this kind of news online,” said Li Eryou, a 68-year-old father who lost his 29-year-old son.

“Many families don’t even know how to access this information, so they are completely unaware,” he told AFP.

Grieving families gathered outside the Malaysian embassy in Beijing on the eleventh anniversary of the flight’s disappearance earlier this month, chanting: “Give us back our loved ones!”

Cheng Liping, whose husband had been in Malaysia for a film shoot and had been returning to China on MH370, said she hoped Beijing would communicate more with Malaysia to uncover the truth.

“Everyone has been left trapped in pain,” she told reporters. “What exactly happened is still unknown.”

The fresh search prompted mixed reactions from the families of passengers when it was announced in December – with some calling it a step towards closure, while others describing the news as bittersweet.

(BBC News)