Heathrow airport: Pilot admits ‘I don’t know where we’re going’ in mid-air during flight diversion chaos

Passenger heard pilot say ‘Stansted’s full, Gatwick’s full’

A passenger whose plane was due to land at Heathrow today said the pilot told those onboard that they had no idea where they could land after Europe’s biggest airport shut after a fire caused a major power outage.

Thousands of travel plans have been thrown into chaos after London’s Heathrow Airport closed in the early hours, and it will remain so until at least 11.59pm on Friday, 21 March – with 1,351 flights have been affected.

Up to 300,000 customers were set to fly through Heathrow on Friday. Tim, a passenger who was flying to London from Bangkok, Thailand, told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that the pilot told the cabin that they were unsure where the plane would go.

At the time, 120 planes were in the sky heading for Heathrow and had to divert to other airports.

Firefighters at the North Hyde electrical substation which caught fire (Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)

Tim said that during the 12-hour flight from the Thai capital, the pilot told them: "We don't know where we're going to go yet."

“Stansted’s full, Gatwick’s full, we are trying to find out where we can land,” Tim recalled the pilot saying.

The flight did end up landing in Brussels, with Tim telling the station that Belgium was “better than being turned back all the way back to Asia, I suppose."

When asked if he knew when the plane was likely to end up getting back to the UK, Tim said: "It's a big aircraft so it's going to be a decent-sized airfield, isn't it?

"They refuelled us and the captain's just waiting for a slot somewhere to fit us in in the UK."

Speaking from the tarmac at Brussels, where the plane had been sitting for four hours, Tim said: "What's annoying is that they haven't come around with any [food or drinks]. I've gone down to get some water."

Later on, the passenger and the rest of the flight ended up being taken off the plane and were waiting in the airport for a plane to take them back to the UK.

The fire at the North Hyde electrical substation (London Fire Brigade)

Heathrow has asked passengers not to travel to the airport and to contact their airline for further information.

The airport has closed to “maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues”.

Meanwhile, significant disruption is expected to continue over the coming days, according to a Heathrow spokesperson.

At least 70 firefighters and 10 fire engines have been deployed to Hayes in west London to tackle the fire, the London Fire Brigade said, adding that 150 people have already been evacuated and hundreds of nearby homes were without power.

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