Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after fire causes outage

LONDON - London’s Heathrow Airport slowly resumed some flights Friday after a nearby fire caused a major power outage, disrupting flights at one of the world’s busiest airports. 

The London airfield said it would begin flights for passengers left stranded when they were diverted to other European airports, and to get planes back in the right place. It hopes to be in full operation on Saturday. More than 1,000 flights were affected.

Here's what to know: 

London’s Heathrow Airport closes after fire

What we know:

The fire broke out at a power station about two miles from the airport and was brought under control by about 6:30 a.m. local time – seven hours after it erupted, the London Fire Brigade said. Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the fire had also knocked out a backup power supply to the airport. 

In its own statement, Heathrow said that the fire had given it no choice but to close the airport for the day. At least 1,350 flights to and from Heathrow were affected, flight tracking service FlightRadar 24 said, and the impact was likely to last several days as passengers try to reschedule their travel.

Some 120 flights were in the air when the closure was announced, with some turned around and others diverted to Gatwick Airport outside London, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris or Ireland’s Shannon Airport, tracking services showed.

What we don't know:

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the cause of the fire remains unknown and called the incident "an unprecedented event."

It's too early to know for sure what sparked the blaze, but the Metropolitan Police force said counterterrorism detectives were leading the investigation because of their ability to find the cause quickly and because of the location of the electrical substation fire and its impact on critical national infrastructure.

The force said that "after initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious."

Big picture view:

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. It had its busiest January on record earlier this year, with more than 6.3 million passengers, up more than 5% from the same period last year. January was also the 11th month in a row that it averaged over 200,000 passengers a day, with the airport citing trans-Atlantic travel as a key contributor.

What they're saying:

"We expect significant disruption over the coming days, and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens," the airport said.

Anita Mendiratta, an aviation consultant, told the Associated Press that the impact of the closure would be felt over two to four days as airlines, cargo carriers, and crews are re-mobilized and passengers rebooked.

"As soon as the airport opens up at midnight tonight, it’s not only about resuming with tomorrow’s flights, it’s the backlog and the implications that have taken place," Mendiratta said. "Crew and aircraft, many are not where they’re supposed to be right now. So the recalculation of this is going to be intense."

Dig deeper:

The London Fire Brigade sent 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters to control the blaze after flames soared into the sky when a transformer at the electrical substation in west London caught fire just before 11:30 p.m. local time. About 150 people were evacuated from their homes near the power station.

As the airport closed, National Rail also canceled all trains to and from the airport.