The counter-terraler police on Friday began an electrical substation investigation, which shut down the Heathrow Airport, leading to the cancellation or twisting of hundreds of flights from the journey chaos for travelers around the world and the busiest air hub in Europe.
According to online flight tracking website flightradar24, Heathro rooted around 80 countries and some 1,350 flights on Friday for land or landing from five terminals of the airport.
Some 230,000 passengers use Heathro a day and 83 million per year, making it one of the busiest airports in the world.
The Metropolitan police of London said that the Force Counter Terrorism Command was interrogating the “impacting the incident on the important national infrastructure”.
A spokesman said, “There is no indication of foul play at present, we maintain an open mind at this time.”
Firefighters were soon called for “highly visible” explosion after 2320 GMT on Thursday and about 70 were sent to the war, which was brought under control by approximately 0800 GMT.
UK Energy Secretary Ed Milliband promised that the government could do all this to restore power quickly, as questions were raised about the “flexibility” of the airport.
obstacle
Videos on social media, apparently shot inside Heathro’s terminals, shown closed shops and uninhabited corridors, burnt only by emergency lighting.
The shut-down struggled to make alternative arrangements for many passengers.
28 -year -old Muhammad Khalil said, “I planned this journey three months ago … I have spent a lot of money on tickets and everything.”
“You can’t imagine how stressful it is to me,” he told AFP.
British Airways stated that closing its main hub would have a “significant impact” on its operations and customers.
“We are working as soon as possible to update them on their travel options for the next 24 hours and beyond,” said this.
42 -year -old Talaiya Fokades was to go out of London for Athens on Friday morning, but when the news was heard, Gatvik reached to get a new ticket.
His mother later underwent heart surgery during the day.
“I just need to live there,” he told AFP, his voice is shaking with emotion.
The route was changed
According to flightradar24, about 120 heathro-bound planes were in the air, when the closure was announced.
Airport officials said they expect “significant disruption” in the coming days.
Britain’s second busiest airport, Gatvik, said it would accept some flights from Heathro. Others were taken to European airports including Shannon at South -Western Ireland, Frankfurt and Paris Charles de Gaul.
A resident near the substation said he heard a “massive explosion”, as Shakti was cut just before midnight, while the other reported to see “bright flash of white”.
About 150 people were evacuated from nearby assets due to the fire.
London Fire Brigade Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Smith told reporters that “tireless efforts in challenging and very dangerous circumstances” worked.
He said that the fire included “transformer in which 25,000 liters of cooling oil was to be completely surrounded.
Outage left 100,000 houses without electricity overnight. By the morning, all were restored for about 4,000.
Question
As the scale of disintegration began to emerge, Miliband faced questions as to how a fire could close the entire airport.
He said that the power distribution network National Grid had told him that he had not seen anything “like the scale”.
“But this heathro looks quite weak and so we have learned a lesson, as I say, not only about Heathro, but how we protect our major infrastructure,” he told ITV News.
Ruth Cadbury, chairman of the Parliamentary Transport Committee, said that at this time it was “speculative” that arson caused the fire.
But he told Times Radio: “There are clearly questions about it.”
Flights from all over the world were shutdown and affected by Aviation Advisor Philip Butterworth-Haose, AFP reported that it would certainly be more than “£ 50 million ($ 64.7 million)” for airports and airlines.
Located 25 km west of Central London, last year Heathro’s main flight destination was Dublin, Los Angeles, Madrid and New York.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is published by a syndicated feed.)
