Heathrow Airport closed after a substation fire

London, Mar. 22: Britain's Heathrow Airport was closed all day Friday after a fire at a nearby electrical substation knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at Europe's busiest travel hub.

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.

Lawrence Hayes was three-quarters of the way to London from John F. Kennedy International in New York when Virgin Atlantic announced they were being diverted to Glasgow.

"It was a red-eye flight and I'd already had a full day, so I don't even know how long I've been up for," Hayes told the BBC as he was getting off the plane in Scotland. "Luckily I managed to get hold of my wife and she's kindly booked me a train ticket to get back to Euston, but it's going to be an incredibly long day."

Fire under control but impact to last days

The fire at a power station about 2 miles from the airport was brought under control about seven hours after it erupted in a ball of flames, the London Fire Brigade said.

"We don't know the cause of this fire. It's obviously an unprecedented event," Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said.

Miliband said the fire had also knocked out a backup power supply to the airport. Heathrow said in a statement that the fire had given it no choice but to close the airport for the day.

"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.(AP)