Heathrow: Counter -Terrorism involvement in the fire that caused the temporary “closure” of the airport

Heathrow: Counter -Terrorism involvement in the fire that caused the temporary “closure” of the airport

‘Alarm’ has been sounded by the British Police Authorities the Great fire that broke out today (21.03.2025) on a power supply of electricity network near the airport Heathrowwhich resulted in a power outage at its premises.

Around At 70 firefighters struggled to extinguish the fire In the substation in a western suburb of Londonwhich It also put off the region’s reserve electricity systemcausing massive power outage to Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport and fifth in the world in number of passengers.

In fact, it was decided to suspend the airport that EAs a result of creating a huge disruption to airlines and panic in hundreds of passengers, with the competent authorities investigate the causes and conditions under which the incident was caused.

In this context, the London Metropolitan Police announced that units and sections of anti -terrorism service are actively involved in investigationsas it is about an incident in critical national infrastructure with serious effects Not only inside the country but also internationally.

The reason why anti -terrorism officials now have a role in investigations is due to the fact that This service has the appropriate and required resources but also the possibilities to expedite the procedurea so as to they are detected the cause her Fire » The Metropolitan Police also mentions.

Huge flames and tobacco appeared in the sky overnight before the Fire Service announced that it had controlled the fire at the substation of Haze’s electricity network, a western suburb of the British capital. Early this morning the roads around Britain’s largest airport were mostly deserted, with the exception of some passengers leaving on foot from the airport with their luggage.

“Our fire researchers will begin their research and continue to work closely with our partners to minimize problems and support the community,” the London Fire Service said in a post on social media.

The causes of the fire is not yet knownadded, while Energy Minister Ed Milibad noted that It does not appear to be due to a criminal act.

‘Blackout’ in airport operation

Heathrow’s address announced that the airport, which was scheduled to manage 1,351 flights during today’s day, with up to 291,000 passengerswill stays closed to midnight as was facing significant power outage.

«Passengers are recommended not to go to the airport and contact their airline for further information“, Added the airport management in its announcement. “We apologize for the inconvenience».

The power outage in Heathrow, caused by the fire, which was reported shortly after 23:00 local time yesterday, Thursday (20.03.2025), (01:00 Greek time today), He forced airlines to divert their flights to other airports in Britain and Europewhile many long distance flights have just returned to the airport from which they had left.

Milibad noted that ‘catastrophic’ fire prevented a spare power system operation and that mEchopaths work to put a third backup mechanism into operation.

«For every incident like this we want to understand why it happened and, if there are bonnetia lessons, Let’s get them for our infrastructure, “he told Sky News.

‘Awaiting Chaos’

Industry experts warned that passengers whose flights had to land at other airports in Europe may need to stay in waiting for non -direct passengers if they do not have the visa visa (visa) required to leave the airport. It will also be affected by global flight programsas many planes will be away.

«Heathrow is one of the largest nodes in the world“, Said Ian Petsenik, a spokesman for the Flightradar24 flight watch. “This will disturb the operation of airlines around the world,” he noted.

The British Airline British Airwaysthe largest carrier of Heathros, had 341 flights planned to land there today.

Chaos hit airline sharesincluding British Airways’ motherboard. According to Flightradar24, At least 120 incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports early this morning.

Qantas Airways raised its flight from Perth to Paris, a flight from United Airlines New York headed to Shannon, Ireland, and United Airlines flight from San Francisco was to land in Washington (Columbia region).

Some US flights turned around while they were around their mid -route to return to the point they departed.

Travel experts pointed out that The disruption is expected to extend far beyond Heathros.

Carefully choreographed airline networks depend on airplanes and crews located in specific places at specific times. Dozens of carriers will be forced to quickly remodel their networks to move planes and crews.

Disruption and turmoil in passengers and companies

“The other issue raised is, ‘What will airlines do to deal with passenger delay? ‘“Said Henry Hartbelt’s travel industry analyst of the Atmosphere Research Group. “For a couple of days will be chaotic condition“, He noted.

Some passengers turned to social media. Entrian Speeder, who works in the British Tesco chain, said in a post on X that he was on an Airbus A380 heading for Heathrow. “#Heathrow no idea where we are going. Currently above Austria, “he wrote.

The Heathrow and other large London airports have been affected in the past in recent years by power outageswith the most recent one Automatic gate harm and a collapse of systemic Air traffic, both in 2023.

Heathrow’s spokesman said in his email to Reuters that It has not been clarified when the electricity will be restored to the airport and that expect significant disorders in operation in the coming days.

In addition to London, Some houses and businesses did not have electricity. “Firefighters led 29 people to safe places from neighboring properties and, for precautionary reasons, was excluded from a 200 -meter -ray area, and about 150 people were also removed,” the fire brigade said.

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