UK government orders probe into Heathrow shutdown that sparked concern over energy resilience

LONDON (AP) — The British government on Saturday ordered an investigation into the country's “energy resilience” after an electrical substation fire shut Heathrow Airport for almost a day and raised concerns about the U.K.'s ability to withstand disasters or attacks on critical infrastructure.

While Heathrow Airport said it was now “fully operational,” thousands of passengers remained stuck, and airlines warned that severe disruption will last for days as they scramble to relocate planes and crews and get travelers to their destinations.

Inconvenienced passengers, angry airlines and concerned politicians all want answers about how one seemingly accidental fire could shut down Europe’s busiest air hub.

“This is a huge embarrassment for Heathrow airport. It’s a huge embarrassment for the country that a fire in one electricity substation can have such a devastating effect," said Toby Harris, a Labour Party politician who heads the National Preparedness Commission, a group that campaigns to improve resilience.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he'd asked the National Energy System Operator, which oversees U.K. gas and electricity networks, to "urgently investigate" the fire, “to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure."

It is expected to report initial findings within six weeks.

“The government is determined to do everything it can to prevent a repeat of what happened at Heathrow," Miliband said.

Heathrow announced its own review, to be led by former transport secretary Ruth Kelly, a member of the airport's board.

Heathrow Chairman Paul Deighton said Kelly will look at “the robustness and execution of Heathrow’s crisis management plans, the airport’s response during the incident and how the airport recovered.”

More than 1,300 flights were canceled and some 200,000 people stranded Friday after an overnight fire at a substation 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) away cut power to Heathrow, and to more than 60,000 properties.

Heathrow said Saturday it had “added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers." British Airways, Heathrow’s biggest airline, said it expected to operate about 85% of its 600 scheduled flights at the airport Saturday.

While many passengers managed to resume stalled journeys, others remained in limbo.

Laura Fritschie from Kansas City was on vacation with her family in Ireland when she learned that her father had died. On Saturday she was stranded at Heathrow after her BA flight to Chicago was canceled at the last minute.

“I’m very frustrated," she said. “This was my first big vacation with my kids since my husband died, and ... now this. So I just want to go home.”

Residents in west London described hearing a large explosion and then seeing a fireball and clouds of smoke when the blaze ripped through the substation. The fire was brought under control after seven hours, but the airport was shut for almost 18 hours. A handful of flights took off and landed late Friday.

Police said they do not consider the fire suspicious, and the London Fire Brigade said its investigation would focus on the substation's electrical distribution equipment.

Still, the huge impact of the fire left authorities facing questions about Britain’s creaking infrastructure, much of which has been privatized since the 1980s. The center-left Labour government has vowed to improve the U.K.'s delay-plagued railways, its aged water system and its energy network, promising to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy independence through investment in wind and other renewable power sources.

“The last 40, 50 years we’ve tried to make services more efficient,” said Harris. “We’ve stripped out redundancy, we’ve simplified processes. We’ve moved towards a sort of ‘just in time’ economy. There is an element where you have to make sure you’re available for ‘just in case.’ You have to plan for things going wrong.”

Heathrow is one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel, and saw 83.9 million passengers last year.

Chief executive Thomas Woldbye said he was “proud” of the way airport and airline staff had responded.

“The airport didn’t shut for days. We shut for hours,” he told the BBC.

Woldbye said Heathrow's backup power supply, designed for emergencies, worked as expected, but it wasn’t enough to run the whole airport, which uses as much energy as a small city.

“That’s how most airports operate," said Woldbye, who insisted “the same would happen in other airports" faced with a similar blaze.

But Willie Walsh, who heads aviation trade organization IATA, said the episode “begs some serious questions.”

“How is it that critical infrastructure – of national and global importance – is totally dependent on a single power source without an alternative? If that is the case, as it seems, then it is a clear planning failure by the airport,” he said.

Walsh said “Heathrow has very little incentive to improve” because airlines, not the airport, have to pay the cost of looking after disrupted passengers.

Friday’s disruption was one of the most serious since the 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which shut Europe’s airspace for days.

Passengers on about 120 flights were in the air when Friday's closure was announced and found themselves landing in different cities, and even different countries.

Mark Doherty and his wife were halfway across the Atlantic when the inflight map showed their flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Heathrow was returning to New York.

“I was like, you’re joking,” Doherty said.

He called the situation “typical England — got no back-up plan for something happens like this. There’s no contingency plan.”

Associated Press journalist Kwiyeon Ha at Heathrow Airport contributed to this report.

Officials walk through the North Hyde electrical substation in London on Saturday March 22, 2025, which caught fire Thursday night. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

People watch an Emirates plane at Heathrow Airport in London on Saturday March 22, 2025, after flights resumed at the west London airport on Friday evening. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

Travellers arrive at Terminal 2 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Passengers in the arrivals hall at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London, Saturday March 22, 2025, after flights resumed at the airport. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

A man takes a photo of the flight information display in the arrivals hall at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London, Saturday March 22, 2025, after flights resumed at the airport. (Maja Smiejkowska/PA via AP)

A British Airways plane approaches landing as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers wait outside the Terminal as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers check the information board in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025, as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The airport arrivals board at Terminal 5 as Britain's Heathrow Airport has closed for the full day Friday after an electrical substation fire knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at one of Europe's biggest travel hubs in London, Friday, March 21, 2025.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

A British Airways plane is parked at Terminal 5 as Britain's Heathrow Airport has closed for the full day Friday after an electrical substation fire knocked out its power, disrupting flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers at one of Europe's biggest travel hubs in London, Friday, March 21, 2025.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

Workers are seen as smoke rises from the North Hyde electrical substation, which caught fire last night, leading to the closure of the Heathrow Airport, in London, Friday March 21, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

A handwritten sign at a Heathrow Airport tube station in London indicates the airport is closed on Friday March 21, 2025, following a fire at the North Hyde electrical substation the previous night.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A plane is prepared whilst another airplane approaches landing at Heathrow Airport after a fire at an electrical substation shuttered Europe's busiest air travel hub in London, Friday, March 21, 2025.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

A traveller arrives at Terminal 5 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers wait at Terminal 5 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers arrive at Terminal 5 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers arrive at Terminal 5 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Travellers arrives at Terminal 5 as Heathrow Airport slowly resumes flights after a fire cut power to Europe's busiest airport in London, Saturday, March 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Greenland's people are bracing for another visit from U.S. President Donald Trump's inner circle, with second lady Usha Vance set to travel to the autonomous Danish territory this week as her husband ratchets up talk about U.S. security and “territorial” interests in the vast Arctic island coveted by the administration.

Greenland’s prime minister has warned of “American aggression” and lamented a “mess” caused by the upcoming visit from Vance, who will be joined by Trump’s national security adviser and energy secretary. On Sunday, Vice President JD Vance — her husband — blasted Denmark for “not doing its job” and "not being a good ally."

“So you have to ask yourself: How are we going to solve that problem, solve our own national security?" JD Vance said on Fox News. “If that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland, that is what President Trump is going to do, because he doesn’t care about what the Europeans scream at us.”

Trump on Monday took a more conciliatory tone, casting the visit this week as based on “friendliness.”

Denmark is a NATO ally of the United States, and northwestern Greenland already houses the U.S. Pituffik military base that falls under the Pentagon's Space Force.

Danish national police on Sunday sent extra personnel and sniffer dogs to Greenland as part of regular security measures taken during visits by dignitaries. A police spokesperson declined to give details, but news reports said dozens were flown in.

Before the president began his second term in January, a visit by Trump's eldest son heightened concerns in Greenland about possible U.S. ambitions. Donald Trump Jr. told its residents that “we’re going to treat you well” — weeks before March 11 elections that had centered on possible independence from Denmark.

Greenlandic news outlet Sermitsiaq posted images of two U.S. Hercules workhorse military aircraft on the tarmac Sunday in Nuuk, the capital, adding that the planes later departed. News reports said four bulletproof cars had also been flown in.

On her visit, Vance will attend the Avannaata Qimussersu, Greenland’s national dogsled race which features about 37 mushers and 444 dogs, her office said.

Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also be travelling to Greenland, the White House said.

“The U.S. has a vested security interest in the Arctic region and it should not be a surprise the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Energy are visiting a U.S. Space Base to get first-hand briefings from our service members on the ground," said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.

Greenland is also in the process of political transition. The pro-business Demokraatit party, which favors a slow path to independence, won a surprise victory in the recent elections, outpacing the two left-leaning parties that formed the last government.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede, who remains in the post until a new government is formed, acknowledged Sunday on Facebook that there is worry on the island.

The visit of "the wife of the United States vice president and the United States president’s highest security adviser cannot be seen only as a private visit,” he said. “We can already see now, how big a mess it’s caused.”

Egede said there would be no official meetings with the U.S. visitors because a new government has yet to be formed.

In an interview in Sermitsiaq, he was quoted as saying that if allied countries “do not speak out loudly about how the USA is treating Greenland, the situation will escalate day by day, and the American aggression will increase."

He called on Greenland's allies to show support, adding that “the only purpose” of a trip by Waltz is “a demonstration of power to us, and the signal is not to be misunderstood.”

“We have been treated unacceptably,” he wrote on his Facebook account.

The likely next Greenlandic leader, Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Demokraatit, sought to calm nerves and said he was working on building a new coalition government “with the clear goal of creating security for our country and our people.”

“When foreign dignitaries travel to our country on what are called private visits, it rightly causes concern," he wrote on Facebook. “There is no reason to panic. But there is good reason to stand together and to demand respect. I do. And I will continue to do so.”

During a meeting of his Cabinet on Monday, Trump said the visit by the second lady and other U.S. officials was “not provocation” and insisted, “This is friendliness.”

“A lot of people from Greenland” would “like to see something happen with respect to they’re being properly protected and properly taken care of. They’re calling us. We’re not calling them," Trump said.

He suggested that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio might soon be making a trip to Greenland, adding “we’ve been invited” because Greenland’s residents “have been somewhat abandoned.”

“I think Greenland’s going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump said. “I think it’s important. It’s important from the standpoint of international security.”

“If you look at the ships outside of Greenland, you have Russia, you have China, you have lots of different people and lots of different places. It cannot go on the way it is. It’s not going to go on the way it is,” Trump said.

Pressed on who was inviting U.S. officials to Greenland, Trump said, “people from Greenland are asking us to go there” and that “some officials” were among those doing so.

Trump had mused during his first term about buying the world’s largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasn’t for sale. The people of Greenland have also firmly rejected Trump’s plans.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly said that the U.S. will come to control Greenland while insisting he supports the idea for strategic national security reasons — not with an eye toward American expansionism.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, in a statement Sunday reported by Danish broadcaster DR, said: “We want to cooperate with the Americans. But it must be a cooperation based on the fundamental values of sovereignty and respect between countries and peoples.”

On Monday, Foreign Minister Lares Lokke Rasmussen told the broadcaster Greenland was “open to tourists,” but that the visit by U.S. was “problematic at this time because they are not random tourists.”

“It's a charm offensive aimed at pulling Greenland over towards the U.S.,” he said.

In Brussels, a spokesperson for the European Commission said Denmark, a member of the European Union, had the bloc's full support.

“We will continue to uphold the principles of national sovereignty, the territorial integrity of our borders, and the UN charter. These are universal principles that we stand by, and we will not stop defending them, all the more so if the territorial integrity of our member States of the European Union is questioned,” Anitta Hipper said.

Greenland straddles strategic air and sea routes in the North Atlantic and is home to the Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operations.

Greenland, whose population of 56,000 people are mostly from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, also has large deposits of the rare-earth minerals needed to make everything from mobile phones to renewable energy technology.

——

Keaten reported from Geneva and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Lorne Cook in Brussels, Aamer Madhani and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.

Boys play on a frozen beach in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

FILE - Usha Vance attends a campaign rally, Nov. 1, 2024, in Selma, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)