Heathrow Airport live updates: London’s biggest airport will be SHUT all day on Friday after massive power cut following substation blaze

London fire crews were called an electricity substation fire around 11.30pm on Thursday. In the hours that followed, shocking footage of fireballs were spotted while giant plumes of black smoke poured into the sky.

The substation is less than two mile from Heathrow Airport. It is said to have caused a significant power outage.

At 2am, an airport spokeswoman said the airport would be shut until 11.59pm on Friday.

Since then, dozens of flights have been diverted – with more than 1,000 planes expected to be turned away in the hours that follow.

FlightRadar24 spokesman Ian Petchenik said that the unplanned closure of Heathrow Airport will disrupt flights all over the world.

‘Heathrow is one of the major hubs of the world,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘This is going to disrupt airlines’ operations around the world.’

The flight tracking website said on X: ‘Today’s total closure of London-Heathrow will affect at least 1,351 flights to/from LHR.

‘That doesn’t include any flights that might be canceled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position.’

Footage of the blaze shows large clouds of smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters are trying to put out the fire, while videos from inside Heathrow showed the airport lying largely dark amid the power outage.

Flights set to land at Heathrow are already being diverted, but it is currently unclear how many flights are affected.

One of the diverted planes, flight US 146 from Newark, is now set to land in Shannon in Ireland shortly after 5am after the Heathrow Airport closure forced a diversion. It was scheduled to land at Heathrow at 5.55am.

Flights UA901 from San Francisco and EW9462 from Dusseldorf, which were set to land at Heathrow at 7.25am, have also been diverted.

Assistant Commissioner Pat Goulbourne said: ‘This is a highly visible and significant incident, and our firefighters are working tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible.

The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimise disruption.’

He added: ‘Due to the significant amount of smoke, we strongly advise local residents to keep their windows and doors closed.’

‘Around 20 people have been evacuated from neighbouring properties and a 200-metre cordon has been put in place as a precaution with around 150 people evacuated.

‘The fire is producing a significant amount of smoke and local residents are advised to keep their windows and doors closed.

‘The Brigade’s Control Officers have taken almost 200 calls to the fire. The first call was received at 10.23pm and crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding fire stations were mobilised to the scene.’

‘Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation.

‘Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.

‘To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 23h59 on 21 March 2025.

‘We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.

‘We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.’