Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, announced a full closure on Friday (31).
According to the official announcement of the airport management board, a fire at the power transformer station caused a widespread power outage. To ensure safety, the airport will be closed until 23:59 on March 21.
The London Fire Department said the fire broke out at a transformer at a power transformer station in the Hayes area, west London. About 70 firefighters and 10 fire trucks have been mobilized.
About 150 people have been evacuated, and authorities have set up a 200-meter quarantine area in precautions. 29 people from surrounding buildings were also rescued by rescue forces.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Heathrow Airport warned of a "serious disruption" in the coming days.
More than 1,300 flights were canceled or diverted, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.
145,000 passengers could be affected according to an estimate from aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Passengers are advised not to go to the airport and contact the airline for updates.
Heathrow is the world's fourth busiest airport in 2023, with 83.9 million passengers in the past year.
This incident greatly affected the operations of the global aviation industry, according to Ian Petchenik - Communications Director of Flightradar24.
At least 120 flights on the route have been diverted to other airports, according to Flightradar24. Flights scheduled to land at Heathrow on the morning of March 21 have also been transferred to airports in Madrid, Paris and Shannon (Ireland).
Many of the diverted flights may be from Asia and the Pacific, aviation expert Shukor Yusof told CNN. Because these long-haul flights took off before the airport closed and there was no option to return to the departure point.
