London heathrow back in operation: First flight arrives after lengthy power cut
At least 1,350 flights were disrupted in operations between Heathrow and other destinations due to the air traffic control incident and multiple delays are anticipated through the following days for both flight rebookings and flight schedule changes.
British Airways Flight 201 landed at Heathrow Airport on Friday night eighteen hours after an electrical substation fire initiated a power failure which led to the complete shutdown of this massive European transportation center. Operations at the airport resumed at sunset with the lifts being removed making possible the resumption of service after impacts to hundreds of thousands of worldwide passengersA shortage of flights connecting to and from Heathrow totaled 1,350ATTER which may prolong the delays for days to distribute rebookings along with flight rescheduling by airlines.
Electric substation situated near Heathrow Airport
The authorities remain unable to establish the fire's origins and concluded that the incident was no suspicious act. The west London area experienced both a huge blast and a fireball along with smoke plumes which consumed the electric substation situated near Heathrow Airport.When the closure announcement came aircraft tracking services registered approximately 120 active flights which then either redirected to return to their departure points or diverted to land at Gatwick Airport, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris or Shannon Airport in Ireland.
Trans-Atlantic routes
Heathrow Airport achieved its highest January passenger numbers in history this year when it served 6.3 million passengers marking an increase of greater than 5 percent from last year. The shutdown from Friday did not reach the same level of severity as the 2010 Eyjafjallajokull eruption which spread Icelandic ash clouds across trans-Atlantic routes for a prolonged period.
Counterterrorism detectives Heathrow substation fire
Counterterrorism detectives are in charge of probing the electrical substation fire near Heathrow because the Metropolitan Police emphasizes their speed in determining causes and infrastructure effects.The emergency backup system at Heathrow operated correctly but lacked enough capacity to maintain airport operations which led to a complete closure during the day. The airport authorities stated that passengers should avoid traveling to the airport for any reason because the airport remains closed indefinitely. Analysis surfaced that Britain lacked emergency preparedness for disasters or attacks since one fire at Heathrow shut down the busiest airport in Europe for seven catastrophic hours.
