Heathrow closed by huge fire

LONDON, March 21 (Agencies): Britain's Heathrow says "we're now safely able to restart flights" after a fire knocked out its power but warns customers not to travel to the airport unless their airline has advised them to do so.

The airport says it hopes to "run a full operation tomorrow" and will give more information shortly Huge orange flames and plumes of black smoke shot into the sky around 2300 GMT on Thursday as a blaze engulfed a substation near the airport, cutting the power supply and a back-up system. Counter-terror police on Friday launched a probe into an electricity substation fire that shut down Heathrow airport causing travel chaos for passengers around the world and the cancellation or diversion of hundreds of flights from Europe's busiest air hub. Heathrow plies routes to around 80 countries and some 1,350 flights had been due to land or take off from the airport's five terminals on Friday, according to the online flight tracking website Flightradar24. Some 230,000 passengers a day and 83 million a year use Heathrow, making it one of the world's busiest airports.

London's Metropolitan Police said the force's Counter Terrorism Command was leading enquiries given the "impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure".

"While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time," a spokesman added.

Police said that while there was no indication of foul play, they retained an open mind and counter-terrorism officers would lead the inquiries, given their capabilities and the critical nature of the infrastructure.

Heathrow, which is also the world's fifth-busiest airport, said at 1330 GMT that it did not have clarity on when power would be reliably restored, having previously said the airport would be shut until midnight.

Airline experts said the last time European airports experienced disruption on such a large scale was the 2010 Icelandic ash cloud that grounded some 100,000 flights.

The industry is now facing the prospect of a financial hit costing tens of millions of pounds, and a likely fight over who should pay.

"You would think they would have significant back-up power," one top executive from a European airline told Reuters.

The fire brigade said the cause of the fire was not known, but that 25,000 litres of cooling oil in the substation's transformer had caught fire. By the morning the transformer could be seen smouldering, doused in white firefighting foam.