Travellers warned to stay away amid ‘significant disruption’ after fire in Hayes causes power outage

• Full report: Hayes fire sparks major power outage

It’s going to be a chaotic day for some travellers with flight tracking website Flightradar24 saying that at least 120 flights in the air bound for Heathrow will have to divert due to the airport closure.

Scores of flights are already being diverted to other airports, with Qantas Airways sending its flight from Perth to Paris and a United Airlines New York flight heading to Shannon, Ireland. Some flights from the US were turning around mid-air and returning to their point of departure.

“Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.

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