Passengers vent frustration after being stranded by Heathrow fire closure

Airport’s closure left many travellers thousands of miles from home

Passengers arriving at Heathrow in London after the airport reopened. PA Wire

Passengers have spoken about being left stranded after a fire closed Heathrow Airport, forcing planes to turn around in mid-flight.

The world’s second busiest airport reopened on Friday evening and was declared fully operational on Saturday morning, after the blaze knocked out an electricity substation, leaving Heathrow without power.

About 1,350 flights were affected by Thursday night’s fire, according to the Flightradar24 tracking website, and around 120 Heathrow-bound planes were in the air and had to be diverted when the closure, which lasted about 18 hours, was announced.

However, the scene in Heathrow's terminals was one of relative calm on Saturday. Passengers arriving from Dubai on Emirates flight EK001 told The National they were relieved not to have been travelling on Friday. Others checking in for an Emirates flight were all scheduled to fly on Saturday.

But other travellers at Heathrow were still dealing with the fallout of Friday's chaos.

Renais Playford, 30, was on a work trip to New York when she was told that her flight to Heathrow had been cancelled. She arrived back in Britain on Saturday morning.

“Initially we were told that we would not be getting home until Sunday, but fortunately Virgin managed to get me on the next flight,” she told The National.

“But a colleague of mine, she was on an American Airlines flight on Thursday night and it turned around halfway and landed back at JFK. They weren’t told what was happening and she woke up to see the plane going back the other way on the screen.”

Ms Playford, from Southend in England, said the stressful part was not knowing when she would get back to the UK.

“I think it was more the anticipation of 'when are we going to be flying home' and booking extra hotel nights whilst we're there, an extra expense that had to go on your card,” she said.

Michael Behar was left stranded in China on his way back to Bucharest via Heathrow. Photo: The National

Michael Behar was waiting at Heathrow with his girlfriend to continue their journey to Bucharest after finally arriving from the Chinese city of Xi’an after their Tianjin Airlines flight was cancelled.

“We got a message from Booking.com to say the flight had been cancelled but we were told the airline wouldn’t pay for a hotel room even though the flight had been cancelled,” said the 26-year-old, who works as a coder.

Mike Dodson, 63, a cyber security expert, was travelling on the Elizabeth Line to Heathrow in the hope his Delta Air Lines flight back to Salt Lake City would finally take off after it was cancelled on Friday.

“It’s obviously super disappointing not to be able to go home and I’m unsure actually whether or not I’m going to be able to make it back today,” said Mr Dodson, who was on a work trip to London.

Mr Dodson said he was concerned that the fire was able to “take out all power to the airport without there being any backup".

A plane takes off as smoke rises from an electrical substation a day after it caught fire and wiped out power at Heathrow Airport. Reuters

“It appears to be an unfortunate accident but I’m worried that bad actors, such as terrorists, would look at this and see the damage that they could do,” he said.

The Metropolitan Police are not treating the incident as suspicious and the London Fire Brigade's investigation is focusing on the electrical distribution equipment. Firefighters and workers were still at the electricity substation on Saturday morning.

Heathrow said it had added 50 slots to Saturday's schedule.

"We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today's schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport," a statement from the airport said. "Passengers travelling today should check with their airline for the latest information regarding their flight."