At least 1,357 flights have already been cancelled, diverted or delayed today, while some planes already on the way to London have been diverting to other nearby airports following the Heathrow fire
A pilot had ‘no idea’ where to land after the Heathrow fire displaced dozens of planes.
FlightRadar24 data show that 120 planes were up in the air searching for a space to land as of 9am this morning, after a substation fire shut down the airport and cancelled hundreds of flights. The closure impacted more than 1,350 flights, including 679 scheduled to land and 678 due to depart from Heathrow.
At least 1,357 flights have already been cancelled, diverted or delayed today, while some planes already on the way to London have been diverted to other nearby airports. Those close by including Gatwick Airport have already taken several flights, limiting the capacity of other planes still looking for places to land. The Mirror has asked Gatwick to address claims that it is now full and unable to take more diverted flights.
A spokesperson for the airport told the Mirror: “We are aware of the situation at Heathrow Airport today and we are supporting by accepting diverted flights as required. Flights are operating from London Gatwick as normal today.”
A passenger on a flight diverted from Heathrow Airport told LBC that the pilot informed them they had “no idea” where they could land instead. Tim, who was flying from Bangkok to London, ended up stranded in Brussels with no alternative landing options.
Tim spoke to LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast from the tarmac in Brussels, where he had been waiting for four hours, in addition to a 12-hour flight from Bangkok. He shared that the pilot told them: “We don’t know where we’re going to go yet.”
Despite the situation, Tim remarked that ending up in Belgium was “better than being turned back all the way to Asia.” When asked when he expected to return to the UK, he said, “It’s a big aircraft, so it’s going to need a decent-sized airfield, right? They’ve refueled us, and the captain is just waiting for a slot somewhere in the UK.”
Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, saw more than 83.9 million passengers travel through its terminals in 2024.
Ed Miliband, net zero secretary for the Labour government, has said that there’s no suggestion that “foul play” caused the substation fire that forced the airport’s closure. Having earlier told Sky News the blaze was “unusual and unprecedented”, he said that the fire was simply a “catastrophic accident”.
“We’ve got to get power restored as quickly as possible and Heathrow opened as quickly as possible. But the truth is it’s going to take time to unwind the disruption for obvious reasons. There’s no suggestion there is any foul play,” Mr Miliband said.