Heathrow closed all day Fri 21/3/25 - Aviation Impacts

[Mawkie]

Why are Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly line (beyond Hatton Cross) still open? Surely nobody is going to use them to get to Heathrow if the airport’s shut?

T4 is currently closed, with the platforms on reduced lighting.

You may recall the extended closure during covid when T4 was closed for months. Trains were still running through (albeit without passengers) as per the timetable. It was fairly creepy sat there for 8 minutes in virtual silence.

 

[Snow1964]

Is something we're going to hear a lot in the coming hours/days, but it completely misses out that we don't know what backups they have, which are in use and which aren't.

It could well be that they're down to their final backup and aren't allowed to operate flights in case that fails.

With the lack of stories of "suddenly the terminal plunged into darkness", it seems they still have some power. Just not enough, or not enough faith in the continued supply, to actually allow flights in and out.

Yes there are emergency lights in buildings, and I hear runway lights etc are covered by emergency generators.

Almost certainly many computers have battery backups for short interruptions, although how many minutes/hours they could continue before being shut down is a question. A closed duty free shop till isn't going to cause same chaos as no immigration computers and passport gates.

What might not be covered is everything that is electrically powered, escalators, jetway motors, fuel pumping, display screens, lifts going back up, electric bus and airport vehicle recharging etc.

 

[yorkie]

Why are Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly line (beyond Hatton Cross) still open? Surely nobody is going to use them to get to Heathrow if the airport’s shut?

Are you sure there is no-one staying at nearby hotels who wants to get to/from London? Also workers at the airport?

 

[gordonthemoron]

Local residents will love the peace this will give them.

I thought local residents didn’t have electricity either?

 

[JN114]

I won’t elaborate too far; but HEx does form part of the Airport’s Emergency response plan for movement of people away from and within the airport, and staff to the airport.

I expect that those provisions will have been stood up today; with HEx “suspended” for passengers, but trains still running at a reduced frequency.

 

[Snow1964]

I thought local residents didn’t have electricity either?

National Grid have announced power restored to 62,000 homes, but 4900 still without power.

 

[dosxuk]

On a different note - with 3 long haul flights diverted to Glasgow and 5 diverted to Manchester, I would expect Avanti services from these cities to be very busy, especially this morning - assuming they allow passengers to leave the planes at these airports, rather than keeping them on board.

I only said that because I've seen that some of the aircraft are keeping their passengers on board, but I guess this probably to do with airlines trying to sort the logistics of getting several hundred people to London from up north.

Exactly - it would be normal to keep passengers on board until there is a plan in place for what to do next. If they get everyone off, then find out their destination has re-opened and they can depart immediately then it becomes a nightmare to get everyone back on again. If, like in this case, it becomes clear that the destination isn't going to be re-opening for a long while, then keeping people on board long enough to work out how you're going to actually get them there is normally a good thing. Keeps that group of passengers together, you can give them free food / drink (until your stocks run out at least), and means you can get people on the ground to guide them on where to go next. Furthermore, the airports themselves won't want their terminals crush loaded with people who don't know where to go.

 

[NSEWonderer]

Qantas are apparently bussing their Heathrow passengers from Paris CDG where their two overnight flights diverted to.
Doesn't look like Eurostar was an option.

Better that than Delta/Virgin that diverted back to Washington Dulles.

 

[WolvertonWorks]

Why would they keep them on board? Of course they will allow them to disembark.

Isn't there a potential issue with people who were intending to change planes at Heathrow airside - ie by not entering the UK - who do not have but now need a UK ETA (electronic travel authorisation) to enter the UK. Maybe they are trying to work out what to do with such passengers.

 

[jon0844]

Isn't there a potential issue with people who were intending to change planes at Heathrow airside - ie by not entering the UK - who do not have but now need a UK ETA (electronic travel authorisation) to enter the UK. Maybe they are trying to work out what to do with such passengers.

They must have processes for these events, as an emergency evacuation is always a possibility for various reasons.

I'd be interested to know what they are, but I suspect people are just asked to stay put. It's daylight and there will be emergency lighting and possibly some local generation to keep essential systems going even if they can't operate the planes.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Isn't there a potential issue with people who were intending to change planes at Heathrow airside - ie by not entering the UK - who do not have but now need a UK ETA (electronic travel authorisation) to enter the UK. Maybe they are trying to work out what to do with such passengers.

There must be contingency plans for such an eventuality. It's not uncommon.

Better that (Qantas diverting to Paris) than Delta/Virgin that diverted back to Washington Dulles.

Depends how far through the flight they were - if Qantas were more than half way through their journey there wouldn't have been enough fuel to return to Australia. Any transatlantic flight would have had the same issue if it had got more than halfway before the closure was announced.

 

[kristiang85]

Are you sure there is no-one staying at nearby hotels who wants to get to/from London? Also workers at the airport?

Indeed - in fact tomorrow a friend coming down to visit is staying at Heathrow and coming into London as it was the cheapest hotel option.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Depends how far through the flight they were - if Qantas were more than half way through their journey there wouldn't have been enough fuel to return to Australia. Any transatlantic flight would have had the same issue if it had got more than halfway before the closure was announced.

I think most transatlantic flights to the UK would have to have flown a lot more than half way before they reach the point of having insufficient fuel to return to somewhere in America. That's because those flights will be generally need to fly a fair distance across America before they set out across the Atlantic so the halfway point of most journeys won't be halfway across the Atlantic. At the extreme case - I'm not certain but I would guess - a flight from San Francisco to London would, at the halfway point of the journey, still be flying over or at least very close to Canada.

 

[johntea]

Yes there are emergency lights in buildings, and I hear runway lights etc are covered by emergency generators.

Almost certainly many computers have battery backups for short interruptions, although how many minutes/hours they could continue before being shut down is a question. A closed duty free shop till isn't going to cause same chaos as no immigration computers and passport gates.

What might not be covered is everything that is electrically powered, escalators, jetway motors, fuel pumping, display screens, lifts going back up, electric bus and airport vehicle recharging etc.

Generally a battery backup (UPS) is there so in the case of a power outage all your servers have just enough time to shut down 'cleanly' rather than an answer to keeping operations online

Ironically at my workplace since we now provide laptops instead of desktops in most cases workers probably have more of a battery backup duration on their client devices than our infrastructure

At my last job some thieves cut through the live air conditioning unit for our server room (which was located outside at the time) and did a runner with it, not something we ever really predicted happening! Somehow the servers were still running despite being hit by the biggest blast of hot air opening the server room door and of course we had people queuing up at the door within minutes moaning about 'when will xyz be back up?!'

 

[brad465]

Surprised Heathrow had such a single point of failure

Or it was a deliberate sabotage operation that took out other backups, but we'll have to wait and see what the ultimate cause is.

 

[Starmill]

They must have processes for these events, as an emergency evacuation is always a possibility for various reasons.

I'd be interested to know what they are, but I suspect people are just asked to stay put. It's daylight and there will be emergency lighting and possibly some local generation to keep essential systems going even if they can't operate the planes.

I think it'd depend on the fire system and the water pressure... if either of those are failed you can't just ask people to remain in the building.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Baggage claim at Gatwick this morning was absolutely packed with grumpy travellers.

BA16 (ex SYD/SIN) and BA12 (ex-SIN) both landed around 5am and their passengers were still waiting for their bags when I passed through at 07:40. Presumably whoever approves the contract for unplanned ground handling doesn't get into work until 9!

Judging by the crowds further down the hall, I think BA58 ex-CPT and BA56 ex-JNB were also still waiting having both landed around 04:30.

 

[Howardh]

Glad I chose the train today and not fly Heathrow - Manchester! Notice some long distance flights diverted to Paris, will be interesting in future - or maybe even today?? - if that happens those with UK entry visas will need EU ones to enter Paris if they leave the airport.

Therefore even more delays and bureaucracy.
.

 

[dosxuk]

Every flight has planned alternate destinations, on long haul they will have several along the route, it's not uncommon for flights to need to be diverted. The planned alternates will have processes in place in case they are needed to be used. In this case, Qantas diverting to Paris is easy - they already have staff there and their pilots will likely be familiar with the airport.

Emergency diverts (this isn't the case here) are a whole different kettle of fish - they're where the real fun can be - an emergency landing in Russia by a US airline would cause a lot of headaches.

 

[thejuggler]

Flightradar shows diversions. Anything which was due to land early appears to have gone to Europe - Ireland, Spain, France. Cross US flights have landed on the US east coast, others have turned back.

 

[birchesgreen]

Surprised Heathrow had such a single point of failure

You are? Are you new to Britain?

 

[mpthomson]

Why are Heathrow Express and the Piccadilly line (beyond Hatton Cross) still open? Surely nobody is going to use them to get to Heathrow if the airport’s shut?

There will be a requirement for some staff to be there.

 

[enginedin]

Isn't there a potential issue with people who were intending to change planes at Heathrow airside - ie by not entering the UK - who do not have but now need a UK ETA (electronic travel authorisation) to enter the UK. Maybe they are trying to work out what to do with such passengers.

They must have processes for these events, as an emergency evacuation is always a possibility for various reasons.

I'd be interested to know what they are, but I suspect people are just asked to stay put. It's daylight and there will be emergency lighting and possibly some local generation to keep essential systems going even if they can't operate the planes.

Maybe this is drifting into the territory that the other thread is for, but this has also occurred when internal UK flights (hence passengers don't have passports) have been diverted to European airports: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68053499

 

[Mike395]

Glad I chose the train today and not fly Heathrow - Manchester! Notice some long distance flights diverted to Paris, will be interesting in future - or maybe even today?? - if that happens those with UK entry visas will need EU ones to enter Paris if they leave the airport.

Therefore even more delays and bureaucracy.
.

There are exceptional measures in place for this type of event to get EU visa-on-arrivals sorted for those who normally would need one in advance. It's in no-one's best interests for people to be stuck airside for (potentially) days.

 

[Class15]

Are you sure there is no-one staying at nearby hotels who wants to get to/from London? Also workers at the airport?

Aha I didn’t think of hotels. Piccadilly line can possibly handle staff but if there are people at hotels that makes perfect sense. Thanks!

 

[mpthomson]

I only said that because I've seen that some of the aircraft are keeping their passengers on board, but I guess this probably to do with airlines trying to sort the logistics of getting several hundred people to London from up north.

Likely due to the airports concerned trying to control the number of passengers in the terminal building at any one time, so will be phasing disembarkation and luggage etc.

 

[Big Sam]

Every flight has planned alternate destinations, on long haul they will have several along the route, it's not uncommon for flights to need to be diverted. The planned alternates will have processes in place in case they are needed to be used. In this case, Qantas diverting to Paris is easy - they already have staff there and their pilots will likely be familiar with the airport.

Emergency diverts (this isn't the case here) are a whole different kettle of fish - they're where the real fun can be - an emergency landing in Russia by a US airline would cause a lot of headaches.

Everything you say is correct, but I think it's important to add that the part highlighted in bold is highly unlikely to happen due to U.S. airlines being banned from Russian airspace (along with many other nations). Any U.S. flight which flies close to Russia will be planned in such a way that a non-Russian aerodrome will be the most suitable diversion.

 

[jon0844]

I think it'd depend on the fire system and the water pressure... if either of those are failed you can't just ask people to remain in the building.

I assumed the airport would have some backup power for safety systems, just not all the things needed to manage planes, but I really don't know and will continue in another this thread as appropriate.

 

[TravelDream]

Just messaged family member who works in operations for BA.

They are expecting no operations today and highly disrupted operations on Saturday and Sunday. Especially on Saturday up to lunchtime which will be a mess.

I'd expect rail to operate tomorrow if flights start going out/ coming in.

UK domestic is always the first to be cut so I'd expect Avanti/ LNER to be busier than normal.

 

[dosxuk]

Everything you say is correct, but I think it's important to add that the part highlighted in bold is highly unlikely to happen due to U.S. airlines being banned from Russian airspace (along with many other nations). Any U.S. flight which flies close to Russia will be planned in such a way that a non-Russian aerodrome will be the most suitable diversion.

Yes - planned diverts will be away from Russia. It's the emergency ones where you need to get on the ground as soon as possible that can end up with you landing somewhere not very friendly. For example, in 2018 a 787 got stuck in Iran for several months after it had to make an emergency landing, and the spare parts needed for it to leave again were banned from being taken in to Iran.