A fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Heathrow Airport in London, triggering an evacuation and canceling all flights. Heathrow slowly started to resume operations by Friday evening, but it was still far from normal, and it was having a ripple effect at airports worldwide, including in NYC. NBC New York’s Pei-Sze Cheng reports.
Confused travelers at John F. Kennedy International Airport looked to screens, phones and emergency personnel Friday for information on what to do next after a fire near Europe's busiest travel hub triggered a power outage, canceling hundreds of flights around the globe and impacting hundreds of thousands of people.
At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said. In New York, JFK operates about 20 direct flights to Heathrow each day, while neighboring Newark Airport in New Jersey operates around eight.
Passengers were seen at JFK late Thursday shooting video as intercoms boomed information that their flights were canceled.
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Authorities do not know what caused the fire but so far found have no evidence it was suspicious. No injuries were reported.
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Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion, followed by a fireball and clouds of smoke, when the blaze ripped through the electrical substation near the airport. The power outage came next.
Some 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned around and others diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris or Ireland’s Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.
Lawrence Hayes was three-quarters of the way to London from New York when Virgin Atlantic announced they were being diverted to Glasgow.
“It was a red-eye flight and I’d already had a full day, so I don’t even know how long I’ve been up for,” Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. "Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and she’s kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but it’s going to be an incredibly long day.”
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% from the same period last year.
