The Latest: Hundreds of thousands of passengers face flight cancelations as Heathrow closes

LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of passengers faced formation cancelations astatine Europe's busiest question hub aft a occurrence knocked retired powerfulness to London's Heathrow Airport, forcing it to adjacent for the day.

At slightest 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected already, including respective from U.S. cities that were canceled, formation tracking work FlightRadar 24 said.

Here's the latest:

Aviation adept compares interaction to 9/11 oregon Icelandic volcano

LONDON — Aviation advisor John Strickland says it volition instrumentality respective days for planetary hose question to retrieve from a daylong closure of Heathrow Airport.

He said: “We’re talking astir respective days’ worthy of disruption to get the planes recovered and commencement utilizing them again to determination planned and disrupted passengers.”

Strickland compared the disruption to “a contained mentation of 9/11 or, to an extent, the Icelandic volcanic eruption” that unopen European airspace successful 2010.

“I remembered seeing connected those occasions – peculiarly much truthful connected 9/11 – it happened truthful speedy and past U.S. airspace was closed, they were turning backmost craft and holding planes. That’s the parallel I would make.

“Heathrow being specified a engaged airdrome and full, there’s nary benignant of wriggle country for getting retired of these benignant of things.”

Heathrow closure has wide interaction connected aerial travel

The closure of Heathrow rippled done planetary aviation. The long-haul bearer Emirates successful Dubai, which has London arsenic 1 of its apical destinations, cancelled six round-trip flights to Heathrow connected Friday alone.

Etihad successful neighboring Abu Dhabi cancelled 2 round-trip flights, portion 1 formation diverted to Frankfurt, Germany. Qatar Airways said astatine slightest 7 scheduled flights were “impacted,” with its unit moving with passengers.

Blaze that unopen down Heathrow is unprecedented, UK authorities curate says

A British authorities curate says a “catastrophic” occurrence knocked retired a backup generator arsenic good arsenic the electrical substation that supplies powerfulness to Heathrow Airport.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband told the BBC that the blaze is “unprecedented.”

He said it’s excessively aboriginal to cognize the origin but that lessons volition person to beryllium learned astir “protection and the resilience that is successful spot for large institutions similar Heathrow.”

Flights from Hong Kong rerouted to Amsterdam, hose says

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways rerouted 2 overnight flights to Amsterdam and canceled astatine slightest 2 daytime flights to Heathrow, according to the formation presumption leafage connected its website.

Fire that closed Heathrow is present nether power but not out

The London Fire Brigade says the electrical substation blaze closed Heathrow Airport is nether control.

The occurrence caused a wide powerfulness outage, affecting thousands of homes, section businesses, and disrupting thousands of flights.

LFB Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne says the occurrence was nether power conscionable aft 8 a.m.

“This was a precise disposable and important incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly successful challenging conditions to bring the occurrence nether power arsenic swiftly arsenic possible,” helium said. “Thanks to their efforts and a coordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the occurrence and prevented further spread.”

Heathrow is 1 of the world's busiest airports

Heathrow is 1 of the world’s busiest airports for planetary travel. It had its busiest January connected grounds earlier this year, with much than 6.3 cardinal passengers, up much than 5% for the aforesaid play past year. January besides was the 11th period successful a enactment it averaged implicit 200,000 passengers a day, with the airdrome citing transatlantic question arsenic a cardinal contributor.

Heathrow usually opens for flights astatine 6 a.m. owed to nighttime flying restrictions. It said the closure would past until 11:59 p.m. Friday.

The U.K. authorities earlier this twelvemonth approved gathering a 3rd runway astatine the airdrome to boost the system and connectivity to the world.

Flights crook astir arsenic airdrome closes

Seven United Airlines flights returned to their root oregon diverted to different airports and its flights Friday to Heathrow were canceled, the hose said.

The FlightAware website showed much cancelations including 2 from John F. Kennedy International successful New York, a Delta Airlines formation and an American Airlines flight.

Other jets were diverted to Gatwick Airport extracurricular London, Charles de Gaulle Airport successful Paris and Ireland’s Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.

National Rail canceled each trains to and from the airport.

Fire cuts disconnected powerfulness to Heathrow and thousands of homes

Flames soared into the entity erstwhile a transformer astatine an electrical substation caught occurrence successful westbound London precocious Thursday night. The occurrence continued to smolder aft daybreak.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said successful a station connected X the powerfulness outage affected much than 16,300 homes. About 150 radical were evacuated.The origin of the occurrence is yet to beryllium determined.