Warren Hu, a college student traveling from New York to London to visit his girlfriend, was among the thousands of passengers whose travel plans were disrupted early Friday due to a fire near Heathrow Airport. Because of the fire at an electrical substation, which cut power at the busy airport, it had to be closed for the entire day, with potential disruptions lasting for days. Many flights were canceled or diverted, affecting passengers coming from countries like Vietnam, Brunei, and India. Lukas Zou, a trader in Shenzhen, China, was unaware of the Heathrow shutdown until he was about to board his flight. With his flight rescheduled for 2 a.m., he expressed frustration about the luggage and the non-cancelable hotel room in London. The closure affected up to 290,000 passengers and 669 flights, with many airlines redirecting planes to alternative airports. British Airways, the main hub at Heathrow, was among the airlines that had to cancel flights and redirect planes. Many passengers, including American and Australian travelers, were affected as well with their flights being diverted or canceled altogether.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03/21/world/heathrow-airport-power-outage-fire