Heathrow shuts: 'We don't know what's happening next - it's chaos'
Steve has been trying to get back to London after his flight was diverted to Paris
- Published
Thousands of passengers have had their travel plans thrown into disarray after Heathrow Airport shut on Friday.
Homes near the airport were evacuated and some schools shut after a fire at an electrical substation in Hayes, west London, caused a power outage.
Heathrow said that it will "restart" some flights later on Friday, and said it hoped "to run a full operation" on Saturday. The airport warned passengers not to travel to the airport unless their airline has advised them to.
Passengers who were on flights already in the air have told the BBC of the disruption that ensued after they were diverted or turned back to where they had departed from.
'We're on our way back to India'
Lucy Adler was midway through her flight back from India after a holiday when the captain woke everybody up and said: "We're on our way back to Delhi."
Speaking from the Indian capital's main airport, she said she and her fellow passengers were in a holding area.
"We've just been told to wait by our bags, we don't know what's happening next... it's just starting to be chaos."
'While you've been sleeping...'
Steve, a businessman, had been on the final stretch of a 14-hour flight from Singapore to London when the speaker system crackled to life.
"The captain came on saying 'While you've been sleeping there have been some developments'", he said.
Their destination - Heathrow Airport - was closed, the captain told passengers, saying that they were diverting to France.
Steve found himself in Paris on Friday morning searching the Eurostar site to get a train back across the Channel.
'Sat on the cold, hard floor for hours'
Stranded passengers on the terminal floor at New York's JFK Airport, after flights to Heathrow were cancelled
Meanwhile, 3,000 miles (5,000km) away, Danielle from Shropshire said she and her parents were left to fend for themselves at JFK Airport after their British Airways (BA) flight was cancelled.
Passengers had boarded the plane on Thursday, she said, but were left waiting on the tarmac for several hours before being told the flight was cancelled.
She was calling from the cold, hard floor of the terminal on Friday morning, where they had been camped for several hours.
"No new flights have been found, no accommodation has been offered or is even available to book."
"We have been issued a $9 (£6.95) food voucher, which will be interesting when a bottle of Evian water here costs $6 (£4.64)," she said.
A BA spokesperson said it had to cancel all short-haul flights in and out of the airport on Friday and was reviewing its long-haul schedule "as well as the implications for our schedule for tomorrow and beyond".
"We will update our customers as soon as possible and we continue to ask them not to travel to Heathrow Airport, but to check on ba.com for the latest flight information."
Affected passengers will be contacted with options including rebooking their flight or receiving a full refund, the airline said.
'Tired, frustrated, angry'
Some stranded passengers worried that it could take far longer than just the weekend to get home.
British serviceman William Hastings, 31, was camping out in New York's JFK's terminal four after his flight with Delta was cancelled.
He and two of his colleagues were on their way home after a six-month military attachment in the US.
William said that after he saw the tweet from Heathrow Airport saying it was closed, more than an hour went by before any confirmation came from Delta.
"Suddenly you've got 500 people rushing [to the bookings desk] to get to these three Delta agents to try and rebook flights," he said.
William spoke to the BBC at 04:00 local time after being awake for 18 hours
"Tired. Frustrated. Angry," is how he summed it up.
He said he had queued for four hours to secure a replacement flight and a hotel organised by the airline - 30 miles from the airport.
The return flight is not until Sunday afternoon and will go via Germany.
"And that depends on whether Heathrow is even operational or not," William added.
A Delta spokesperson said it had suspended operations to Heathrow "and provided customers additional flexibility in rebooking their travel".
Others still do not know when they will return to the UK.
Just reaching Miami International Airport after a two-week holiday had been an ordeal for Holly Lloyd's family, as their route took them past raging bush fires.
"The road opened with flames at the side of the road as we drove through and was closing behind us," said Ms Lloyd from Cambridgeshire, who was travelling with her four-year-old daughter, elderly parents and husband.
After making the flight with seconds the spare, they boarded the plane and sat on the tarmac for nearly three hours before being told the flight had been cancelled, Ms Lloyd said.
Virgin Atlantic offered "no help," she added, "just a letter basically telling us to sort ourselves out and they should refund".
The family found a hotel room at 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT).
But they still have no idea when they will get a flight home.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said Heathrow's closure had a "significant impact" on its flights on Friday, but that it expected to operate "a near full schedule" on Saturday.
"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."
It asked customers not to travel to the airport and to check their flight status online, adding impacted customers had ben emailed with their options.
'There were a lot of tears'
Other passengers spoke of plans ruined as flights out of Heathrow were cancelled.
For Liz, it was her son's graduation.
After her train to watch the ceremony in Scotland was cancelled, Liz booked a flight instead. But that too was called off.
Awake since 03:45 GMT, she told the BBC: "Worse things happen, and I'm now watching my son's graduation online."
Liz pictured here with her son Paddy (left), whom she had to watch graduate remotely after her flight was cancelled
But Annabelle Kiff said she was "genuinely gutted" after the shutdown cancelled her 25th birthday trip to New York.
Annabelle, from Brighton, and her partner Max woke up early on Friday to the news of the disruption.
"There were a lot of tears this morning and I was really upset," she told the BBC.
Annabelle was about to set off on a birthday trip to New York when she heard about the shutdown
"We sat there in the dark not knowing what to do, but we decided not to get on the coach. It felt like a lost cause.
"It's a real shame, but hopefully we'll have a nice weekend here in Sussex instead."
Annabelle said she had been offered a full refund on her flights and package holiday, which she booked through BA, and would aim to re-book the trip at a later date.
Have your flights been cancelled, diverted or delayed due to the Heathrow Airport disruption? If so, you can get in touch via Your Voice, Your BBC News.