Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the cause of a fire that led to London’s Heathrow Airport closure, the Met Police has said.
There is no indication the fire was caused by foul play, the Met Police said in a statement, but added it is keeping an open mind at this time.
Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, will be closed all day Friday after the fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it with power.
The fire is still burning, London Fire Brigade has said.
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There is no indication the fire was caused by foul play, the Met Police said in a statement, but added it is keeping an open mind at this time.
Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, will be closed all day Friday after the fire at a nearby electrical substation that supplies it with power.
The fire is still burning, London Fire Brigade has said.
Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog
For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news
#HeathrowAirport #Heathrow #London #BBCNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00We start with that breaking news from here in London. Counter-terrorism police leading the
00:05investigation after Europe's busiest airport, Heathrow, was completely closed until midnight
00:12at least. It follows what has been described as a catastrophic fire at a nearby electrical
00:17substation which then caused a major power cut. The Metropolitan Police says it is investigating
00:23and it says given the location of the substation and the impact of this incident counter-terror
00:30officers will be leading the inquiries. The Met says while there is currently no indication of
00:36foul play it remains and retains an open mind. Well inbound passengers are currently being
00:44diverted to other airports in the United Kingdom and indeed around the world. Some planes had to
00:50turn around mid-air and then return to where they had originally taken off from. Around 150 people
00:56have been evacuated from their homes because of the fire and nearly 5,000 are still without any
01:02electricity. The London Fire Brigade has said the blaze is under control although 10% of the
01:08substation is still burning and these pictures are of inside Heathrow Airport when the power
01:15cut happened. Corridors were plunged into darkness with just emergency lights still on. Well passengers
01:23are now being advised not to travel to the airport. Airlines are warning the disruption could last
01:28for several days. Today's total closure of London Heathrow Airport affects more than 1,300 flights
01:37globally. That's according to Flightradar24 and at the time of the announcement they say
01:42there were 120 aircraft in the air that have had to divert to alternate alternative airports or to
01:49return to their original airports where they'd flown from. Heathrow is the UK's biggest airport
01:55with more than 83.9 million passengers traveling through its terminals last year. Questions are now
02:02being asked about why Heathrow, such a key and pivotal part of the national UK infrastructure,
02:08did not have an adequate backup power supply that would have allowed it to stay open today.
02:15Let's get the very latest. We can go to Rich Preston, our correspondent who's at the airport.
02:22Rich, just bring us up to date with what you are hearing on the latest developments.
02:29Well Ben, what we're hearing now is that the airport is still closed and will be remaining
02:34closed until midnight. That line has not changed. There are no aeroplanes in the sky as you can see
02:41behind me. Anyone that has ever been around Heathrow, you see planes taking off and landing
02:46every few seconds. That just isn't happening today. I was in a hotel just up the road a little earlier
02:52and the lobby of the hotel is just full of people surrounded by their suitcases. They've checked out
02:58already. They've got nowhere to go because these flights just are not taking off and are not
03:05arriving either. The ripples of this of course being felt far and wide. Yes, this is a London
03:10airport but it's the airport with the most international connections in the world. Think
03:14if you live in the United States, you're traveling to Asia, chances are you might be going via Heathrow.
03:20If you're traveling in Europe and you're going to America, you might be going via Heathrow. So this
03:24is affecting people around the UK and all over the world. And as we heard earlier on as well,
03:30the fire is still burning. LFB confirmed that earlier. 10% still burning. So it doesn't look
03:37like the power is going to be coming on here anytime soon. There are 5,000 other properties
03:42in the area which are affected. The roads around Heathrow are closed. Police not letting people
03:49off the off ramps from the nearby roads down towards the airport
03:52do not travel here is the loud and clear message. Yeah, that's the message loud and clear. And we
03:58were hearing from one travel expert who was saying the knock-on effects of this could last
04:03for maybe four, five, six days and this won't be over in 24 hours. No, absolutely not because of
04:13course all these people that were expecting to come into Heathrow still want to come into Heathrow.
04:17Now, it's already an airport which is pretty much at capacity. It's talking about adding a new
04:21runway to deal with the additional numbers required. So to get all these people through
04:27the system, this is going to take a bit of time. And of course, we're talking about passengers,
04:31but Heathrow is also a major cargo hub. So if you're ordering things online or if you work in
04:37the logistics industry and you deal with things coming in at the next day, that's going to be
04:42affected as well. So this is going to have an impact, yes, on people, yes, on their holidays
04:48and their valuable time off, going to see family, friends, relatives, going for job interviews,
04:53but it's also going to have a big impact on the UK economy as well with, as I say,
04:58those ripples farther afield. And given that and its importance to UK national infrastructure,
05:03there are a lot of questions, as I mentioned earlier, about why the backup systems,
05:08the alternative power supplies weren't good enough, weren't efficient enough
05:12to keep the airport up and running today.
05:16Yeah, there's going to be some big, important questions being asked about that. This is
05:21a key transport hub, a key part of what is referred to as critical national infrastructure.
05:27It forms part of the government's national security strategy and how they deal with
05:32emergencies. So there will be really big questions and some answers expected as to why
05:38one fire at one power plant knocked out this entire, massive, vitally important
05:45airport, which you see empty behind me.
05:48OK, for the moment, Rich, thanks very much indeed. More from you later on. But in the
05:53meantime, let's just hear the latest update about the fire itself from the Deputy Commissioner
05:58of the London Fire Brigade speaking a few minutes ago.
06:02At 20.23 on the evening of the 20th of March, London Fire Brigade received 212 calls to
06:10a fire in a high voltage substation near Heathrow Airport. The fire involved a transformer comprising
06:17of 25,000 litres of cooling oil, fully alight. This created a major hazard due to the still
06:25high voltage equipment and the nature of the oil fuelled fire. LFB was in close contact
06:32with Blue Light Partners overnight and at 00.42 the Metropolitan Police declared a major
06:38incident. This remains a very visible and significant incident. Our firefighters worked
06:45tirelessly in challenging and very hazardous conditions to bring the fire under control
06:51as swiftly as possible.
06:53As of the most recent update that I have received, approximately 10% remains alight and we are
07:00working with SSE to safely resolve this incident. As a result of the incident, 67,000 households
07:08were left without power. Currently, 5,000 homes remain without power. There remains
07:15no power at Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 or Terminal 4. The incident caused London Fire
07:22Brigade and London Heathrow to close the airport and planes to be re-routed. We continue
07:28to work very closely with our partners to minimise disruption.
07:35So that is the latest from the London Fire Brigade. Well, of course, so many passengers
07:40really badly affected by the disruption. Let's talk to one of them, Lucy Adler, who is currently
07:45stranded in Delhi. Lucy, just tell us what happened to you. What's your story?
07:49Hi, Ben. So I was one of those passengers who was literally mid-flight. Our flight took
07:55off at 5am local time. Most people were asleep. Captain woke everybody up and started to explain
08:02what was happening in Heathrow. We all expected him to then go on and say, so we're going
08:07to take you to another London airport. But what he actually said was, we're turning back
08:12round and we're going back to Delhi. So yeah, nine hours of flying to end up right back
08:18where we started was pretty painful. That is painful. What are your circumstances now?
08:25Where are you staying? Are you getting any compensation? Has anybody laid on a hotel for you?
08:31Yeah, so I'm travelling on my own. So I was pretty anxious about what was going to happen.
08:37Luckily, the airline kind of got us to a hotel, but then it's sort of been radio silence since
08:43then. So no one knows what's happening with the flight. They just told us to check the app,
08:48just saying that we've already landed. So yeah, there's a lot of sort of anxiety,
08:54lots of people trying to sort their own thing out. We were given a letter which basically said,
08:59if you can sort yourself out, you're entitled to claim back at a later time and this letter
09:04is your proof. Are there any alternative flights you could get? Are you looking at other ways of
09:11getting home? I mean, obviously, as soon as the announcement was made, everyone was trying to get
09:16onto the Wi-Fi on the plane. I feel really lucky that I have managed to get an alternative flight
09:24out at 1am via Zurich to land in Birmingham Airport. So not ideal, but the more I've seen
09:33the reporting and what's happening in Heathrow, I don't think there's much confidence that
09:37planes are going to be landing there anytime soon. So I'm very happy to have got that flight.
09:42So had you been in Delhi? Were you there on business or on holiday?
09:47No, so I was here for work. So yeah, really nice trip and looking forward to getting home today,
09:53in time for the school run, back to mum duties. But yeah, not to be.
09:58And actually just the worst possible day to be potentially flying because, I mean, this hasn't
10:04happened at Heathrow Airport ever. Nothing like this. There was a shutdown back in 2010 because
10:10of that Icelandic volcano. But apart from that, there's never been a total shutdown. So you're
10:15very unlucky. Yeah. And I think everybody was sort of grumbling at first. And then the more we were
10:21reading what was happening, you kind of realised actually this is a pretty significant thing that's
10:27happened. And as you say, very unlucky. All right. Well, Lucy, good luck to you. And I hope you do
10:33get home safely before too long. And well done for making other arrangements. Thank you so much.
10:40So that is Lucy Adler currently stranded in Delhi, but hoping to get home via Zurich to
10:46Birmingham. Let's go to Lorna Gordon, our correspondent in Glasgow.
10:50And are flights landing there, Lorna, that were supposed to be landing in Heathrow?
10:58Yeah, there's been five flights landing here at Glasgow that were originally
11:03destined for Heathrow. All transatlantics, three of them British Airways, two Virgin
11:10Atlantics and very tired people disembarking at the last couple of hours. They were telling us
11:17they were only told that their flights were being diverted about an hour before landing. Those who
11:24had some kind of internet connection were trying to make alternative plans. One couple told me that
11:30they had to get home to the southeast because the gentleman was involved in a wedding tomorrow.
11:39He was the master of ceremony. So they'd managed to spend nine hundred and twenty two pounds on
11:45two flights back down to Gatwick. They said they think they got the last seats on that flight,
11:51but for quite a hefty price. Others we were speaking to, there was a party of 12 who were
11:57heading from the States up to Helsinki and then onwards to the Arctic Circle for a very special
12:04holiday. They, of course, were less familiar with UK geography, trying to work out how they would
12:08make their way there. They were told to get flights out of Manchester and they were trying to work out
12:13how to do that and how to get down to Manchester. I've heard from them in the last few minutes
12:18they've managed to book on to a bus to take them down there and then onwards for that journey.
12:24People were sort of accepting of the situation, I think it's fair to say, but slightly frustrated
12:30at either the costs or the difficulties involved in trying to arrange the onward journey. But
12:37there's been staff on hand here at the airport to help them. And of course, there's also been
12:42those flights that should have been taking off, heading down to Heathrow and those flights from
12:46Heathrow heading back up here, 12 in each direction. They've also been cancelled today.
12:52All right, Lorna, thank you very much. We'll be back with you a little bit later,
12:56but Lorna Gordon with the latest there from Glasgow.