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London’s Heathrow Airport has gone dark.
After a fire erupted at a power station near the United Kingdom’s busiest airport, they have closed their doors and runways until at least March 22, affecting over 1,000 flights through the weekend and 200,000 passengers flying to and from Heathrow.
The fire, which erupted at Hayes electrical substation near Heathrow at around 8:23 p.m. GMT, has been mostly contained as of the early hours of the morning local London time. However, power has still not been restored to Heathrow or others in the neighboring area, per NBC News. (National Grid UK estimated about 5,000 customers were affected by the flames.)
In terms of the immediate air travel impact of Heathrow’s closure, aviation expert John Strickland told the British PA News agency today that it was a “contained version of 9/11.”
“I remembered seeing on those occasions—particularly more so on 9/11—it happened so quick and then U.S. airspace was closed, they were turning back aircraft and holding planes,” he said. “Heathrow being such a busy airport and full, there’s no kind of wriggle room for getting out of these kind of things.”
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