Heathrow Airport fire forces Boston-to-London flights to return to Logan Airport
The news out of London that Heathrow Airport was closed Friday because of a fire and huge power outage had ripple effects all the way to Boston, even as the airport began to resume some flights.
All seven flights that were due to arrive at Logan Airport Friday afternoon and evening have been cancelled, according to Massport. One departure has also been cancelled, but five flights scheduled to leave Boston for Heathrow Friday night are still on at this point.
Three flights left Logan Airport late Thursday night heading to Heathrow, but they never arrived in London. Some were in the air for hours. A fourth flight was stuck on the runway in Boston. None of the passengers or crew were in England Friday morning.
Boston to London flights
Justin McLane was a passenger on a JetBlue flight from Boston to London.
"It was great, left on time, everything was good. I was sleeping, and the pilot came on and said that some of us may have noticed the plane was turning around, and not to be alarmed, but that London Heathrow was closed due to a fire," he said.
McLane said the jet didn't have enough fuel to get back to Boston so it had to make a stop in Canada first before returning to Logan Airport.
A Virgin Atlantic flight that left Logan for Heathrow at 9 p.m. was in the air for hours before it was forced to return to Massachusetts. It landed back at Logan around 3:30 a.m. Friday.
"We went three hours over and three hours back, so the flight was the same amount of time. I just didn't end up where I wanted to be," said passenger Jim Hewitt, who was hoping to be rebooked, possibly through Amsterdam, Friday.
Kathy Houser of Arizona said she was heading to Athens, Greece and was connecting through Heathrow. But she spent the night in Boston, stuck on a plane for three hours.
"We were supposed to leave at 11, and they updated us all the time, saying that there was an issue at Heathrow, and it affected the runway lights and the power, and so they hoped that they could fix it and they would keep us updated," she told WBZ-TV early Friday morning.
"I don't know how many people were on that flight, but that's a lot of people going to one hotel and there's no public transportation at this hour."
"Unfortunately this has had a significant impact on our flying programme both into and out of Heathrow and all Virgin Atlantic arriving and departing flights are cancelled until 21:30 on 21 March, with the rest of today's schedule currently under review," Anna Catchpole, a spokesperson for Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement.
"We're incredibly sorry for the disruption this will cause and are working with our teams to ensure customers can complete their journeys as quickly as possible."
In addition to Virgin, British Airways, American, Delta and JetBlue all have flights between Logan and Heathrow airports.
"Sting on the tail"
"Had a good week of work and play and then this is the sting on the tail on the way home," said passenger Clive Tillotson. He and his wife had departed from Dallas on their way back to England.
Their flight had to make an emergency fuel stop in Maine before being brought to Boston.
"(It's) annoying because my children are sort of sending messages looking forward to seeing me, looking forward to the things you're bringing home from Dallas," he said.
Busiest airports
Heathrow is the fifth busiest airport in the world, according to travel data provider OAG Aviation.
The company said Atlanta's airport is the busiest. Dallas, Denver and Chicago O'Hare were the other American airports in the top ten.
A travel expert told WBZ it could take two to four days before everything is running on schedule again.
"It's not only about resuming with (Saturday's) flights but it's the backlog and the implications that have taken place," said aviation expert Anita Mendiratta.
