Heathrow Airport has reopened for a limited number of flights after a large fire at a nearby electrical substation disrupted travel for around 200,000 passengers.
Counter-terror police were leading the investigation into the cause of the blaze, which triggered a “significant power outage” that led to more than 1,000 flights to and from the airport being cancelled.
Heathrow’s boss apologised to passengers, describing the disruption “as big as it gets for our airport” and admitting “we cannot guard ourselves 100%”.
In an update on Friday evening, the Metropolitan Police said the cause of the fire is believed to be non-suspicious, while the London Fire Brigade (LFB) announced its investigation will focus on the electrical distribution equipment.
Heathrow is expected to run a full schedule on Saturday.
Image: The proximity of Heathrow to the electrical substation
The fire that caused the power outage is at the North Hyde substation in Hayes, about 1.5 miles to the north of the west London airport.
LFB received the first reports of the fire at 11.23pm on Thursday.
Heathrow initially announced the airport would be closed until 11.59pm on Friday but later said repatriation flights for passengers diverted to other airports in Europe would resume on Friday evening.
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Heathrow outage nearly ‘as big as it gets’
Several airlines announced they would restart scheduled flights both to and from Heathrow, including British Airways (BA), Air Canada and United Airlines.
A BA flight to Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia, took off just before 9pm after a slight delay to its expected departure time.
Restrictions on overnight flights have also been temporarily lifted to help ease congestion, the Department of Transport said.
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Runways deserted as substation fire is put out
Image: Flightradar24 showed up to 120 planes in the air would be forced to divert or turn back. Pic: Flightradar24/X
Airport disruption nearly ‘as big as it gets’
Heathrow Airport’s chief executive Thomas Woldbye told reporters the flights taking off on Friday evening would help make sure the airport has “operations in place” for Saturday morning.
He continued: “Tomorrow morning we expect to be back in full operation, so 100% operation as a normal day.”
Image: Passengers arrive at Heathrow Airport as flights resume. Pic: AP
Mr Woldbye added that passengers who were planning to fly from Heathrow on Saturday should arrive at the airport in time for their flight as normal.
The chief executive also apologised to the passengers whose journeys had been disrupted but said he would not have closed down the airport unless there were “severe safety concerns”.
Image: The height of the fire was described as ‘absolutely apocalyptic’. @JoselynEMuirhe1/X/PA
Image: Pic: AP
Asked whether the disruption caused by the fire suggested there was a “weak point” in Heathrow’s operations, Mr Woldbye replied: “We can’t guard ourselves 100%. This has been a major incident.
“Short of anybody getting hurt, this is as big as it gets for our airport and we are actually coming back quite fast.”
He added: “This is unprecedented, it’s never happened before.”
It comes after Number 10 said earlier that there are questions to be answered about how the fire has caused so much chaos.
Image: Stranded passengers at Heathrow Terminal 5. Pic: PA
Image: Pic: PA
Mr Woldbye said: “Our procedures have worked the way they should… Of course the prime minister should ask questions and we’ll be happy to answer them.”
Earlier, the airport said it expected “significant disruption over the coming days” and warned passengers “not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens”. All trains to Heathrow were suspended.
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Moment Heathrow substation ignites
Some power has returned to Terminal 4, with lights in the main building and lifts in the multi-storey car park operational again.
The disruption began late on Thursday night when fire crews were called to a blaze in west London at an electricity substation serving Heathrow and local properties.
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‘It’s all dark here, mate’: Fire cuts Heathrow power
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Thousands of passengers stranded
Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports and had a record 83.9 million passengers last year, with a plane landing or taking off around every 45 seconds.
The figure, from the Civil Aviation Authority, is equivalent to about 229,000 passengers using the hub every day.
Aviation analytics firm Cirium told the New York Times that it believed as many as 290,000 passengers could have been affected on Friday – enough to fill Wembley Stadium three times.
Image: Smoke was continuing to rise above the North Hyde electrical substation this afternoon. Pic: PA
Image: Pools of what looks like foam surround the damaged substation. Pic: PA
Oil fire still alight at substation
LFB deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith told reporters at a news conference the fire involved a transformer – a key part of the substation – with 25,000 litres of cooling oil “fully alight”.
Image: Fire crews said the blaze was now under control. Pic: PA
Image: Aerial footage shows the scale of the damage the fire has done to the substation
Crews evacuated 29 people from neighbouring properties but there were no casualties.
In all, 67,000 households were left without power after the fire at the substation, but all supplies have been restored.
Earlier LFB said 10 engines and around 70 firefighters had been working to extinguish the blaze.
Pictures from the scene showed large flames and plumes of thick black smoke.
The LFB said in a statement that 5% of the fire was still alight as of 7pm on Friday.
Counter-terrorism police are investigating after an incident involving a crossbow and a firearm left two women injured in Leeds.
Police were called to Otley Road at 2.47pm on Saturday to reports of a “serious incident involving a man seen with weapons”, West Yorkshire Police said.
Officers arrived at the scene to find two women injured – and a 38-year-old man with a self-inflicted injury. All three were taken to hospital, with the man held under arrest, but their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.
“Two weapons have been recovered from the scene, which were a crossbow and a firearm,” Counter Terrorism Policing North East said in a statement.
The incident happened on the ‘Otley Run’ pub crawl, with one venue saying it was closed for the evening due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Image: Officers guard one of the crime scenes
Image: Officers inside the cordon in Leeds
Counter Terrorism Policing’s statement added: “Due to the circumstances surrounding the incident, Counter Terrorism Policing North East have taken responsibility for leading the investigation with the support of West Yorkshire Police.
“Extensive enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances and explore any potential motivation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as a “serious violent incident” and said she was being kept updated by police.
“Thank you to the police and emergency services for their swift response,” she said. “My thoughts are with the victims and all those affected by this attack.”
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Wrexham AFC have been promoted for the third season in a row.
The North Wales-based side has gone from the National League to the Championship in just three seasons, under its Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Wrexham were second in the table and had a run of eight games unbeaten ahead of their match against Charlton Athletic on Saturday, which they won 3-0.
Image: Wrexham’s James McClean lifts the League One trophy. Pic: PA
Image: Wrexham’s Dan Scarr celebrates with the fans on the pitch after Wrexham won promotion to the Championship. Pic: PA
It is the first time any club has been promoted for three consecutive seasons within the top five tiers of English football.
The third oldest association football club in the world, Wrexham AFC was bought by Reynolds and McElhenney in 2020, and has since been the subject of a Disney+ documentary, Welcome To Wrexham.
Reynolds, wearing a Wrexham sweatshirt, and McElhenney were pictured celebrating each goal, and after the game, as the fans came onto the pitch at the SToK Cae Ras (Racecourse Ground) to celebrate the victory with the players.
Image: Wrexham co-owners Rob McElhenney (L) and Ryan Reynolds and Ryan’s wife Blake Lively, before the match. Pic: PA
Both stars came onto the pitch after the supporters returned to the stands.
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Speaking to Sky Sports, McElhenney praised those behind the scenes, referring to “so many that don’t get the credit they deserve, people who aren’t talked about”.
Reynolds said bringing success back to the club “seemed like an impossible dream” when they arrived in North Wales in 2020.
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Image: Wrexham’s Sam Smith celebrates in front of the fans after Wrexham won promotion to the Championship. Pic: PA
He put the three promotions down to “the coaching staff, the greatest dressing room” and an “all for one, one for all” attitude throughout the club, adding he was “speechless with their commitment and their emotion”.
As for the mouth-watering prospect of another promotion to the promised land of the Premier League, the pair agreed it was “for tomorrow”, before ending the interview with a joint mic-drop.
Veteran striker Steven Fletcher said, “as soon as I came to this club, I knew it was something special. We want to go again. We’ll reset in the summer, take a break and go again”.
Just Stop Oil (JSO) insists it’s been “successful” – as its members ceremoniously hang up their orange high-vis vests during a march in central London.
Since the group formed three years ago, it’s drawn attention and criticism for its colourful, controversial protests, which ranged from disrupting sporting events to throwing soup on Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and climbing on gantries over the M25. It sprayed orange paint over Stonehenge, and cost police forces tens of millions of pounds.
Those days are now behind it; to the relief of many.
As a few hundred activists marched through London on Saturday, blocking roads as they went; taxi drivers blared their horns and football fans shouted abuse from the pavement.
The PA News Agency filmed the moment a white minivan seemed to drive towards a group of protesters blocking the road.
Protesters shouted “I’m being pushed back!” to police, while the driver could be heard shouting “What about my right to get home?” to the officers gathered.
But JSO never set out to be popular. And it believes its tactics – though hated – have been successful; thanks to the new Labour government’s commitment to not issue new oil or gas exploration licences.
That’s why, it says, its ceasing direct action.
Image: JSO hangs up its high-vis jackets in central London on Saturday
Image: A washing line of high-vis jackets signifies JSO’s disbanding
“This moment marks the success of the JSO campaign – our demand was to end new oil and gas licences and that is now government policy.
“As a result of which four billion barrels of oil are being kept under the North Sea. The campaign has reached a natural end.”
Dr Oscar Berglund, senior lecturer in international public and social policy, disagrees that JSO is disappearing because it’s been “successful”.
He told Sky News policing strength and public perception might have more to do with it.
“They have very low levels of popularity. About 17% of the British population are kind of broadly supportive of what Just Stop Oil do. And that’s too low to recruit.
“It’s difficult to recruit members to something that is that unpopular, and then that a lot of people for good reason I think have kind of stopped believing in that kind of disruption as a means to achieve meaningful change.”
Group triggers specific new protest laws
One thing it did change is the law.
Policing commentator Graham Wettone tells us: “Obstruction of the highway, obstruction of rail networks for example, these are specific offences now.
“It’s given the police more tactics, more methods, more offences they can consider, even stopping and searching somebody who may have something to either lock themselves on or glue themselves to something.”
Image: A JSO activist holds a picture of an imprisoned colleague
Emma Smart was held in prison for her activism with both Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil.
“The high-vis might be going away,” she tells me, “but we aren’t.”
“These people aren’t going anywhere, we are still committed, dedicated, terrified by the failings of this government and governments around the world.”
Image: JSO activists throw orange paint at van Gogh’s sunflowers
Image: Orange smoke set off by JSO protesters at Stonehenge
She hopes for a time of reflection before it returns in a new form but says the need for climate activism is stronger than ever.
She also believes that while most people dislike JSO tactics, it still raises awareness of the cause and might even push people to more moderate campaign groups.
Just Stop Oil came behind other, similarly controversial climate campaign groups like Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion, and as it says goodbye, its disruptive methods have been seized upon by other organisations like the Pro-Palestinian Youth Justice.
The infamous Just Stop Oil orange vests might be going away, but the individual activists, their cause and campaign tactics feel here to stay.