On March 21 a fire in a small electric sub-station located in Hayes caused a disastrous black-out in the nearby London/Heathrow international airport causing the total suspension of the activity all the entire day. Heathrow is the busiest airport in Europe and fourth ranking globally. Over 1,300 flights were cancelled including those due to depart and those arriving, being obliged to divert to other airports. This caused immense inconvenience for at least 300,000 passengers, many being stuck in the London airport or in other airports around the world. The most damaged airline by the sudden and unpredictable problem was British Airways which has its operational base at Heathrow. From March 22, after the reopening of the major London airport, the worldwide air transport network suffered serious problems of reorganizations for several days.
In the picture: Airbus A 320-251N neo G-TTNG of British Airways forced to a turn-around at Malpensa. (Aeromedia)
(Aeromedia, March 2025)
