Power Outage Shuts Heathrow Airport, Snarling Travel

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 March 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A.M. Edition for Mar. 21. WSJ aviation reporter Ben Katz describes how a fire at an electrical substation is having widespread ramifications as passengers, flights and goods into Europe’s busiest airport are left stranded or diverted. Plus, protests in Israel after Prime Minister Netanyahu fires his intelligence chief, tightening his grip on power. And Elon Musk is set to receive a top-secret Pentagon briefing on U.S. war plans for China. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.0	use right now. That's why the world works with ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com
0:27.9	slash UK slash AI for people. Major disruption as an electrical outage shuts London's Heathrow Airport.
0:38.8	As we know in the aviation world, schedules are really tight.
0:41.9	It takes a long time to recover from this type of disruption.
0:44.9	So really a significant moment today.
0:47.4	Plus protests in Israel after Prime Minister Netanyahu fires his intelligence chief,
0:53.1	tightening his grip on power, and Elon Musk is
0:56.4	sent to receive a top secret Pentagon briefing today. It's Friday, March 21st. I'm Luke Vargas for
1:02.6	the Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business
1:07.9	stories, moving your world today.
1:21.7	London's Heathrow Airport is shut after an electrical fire knocked out power to Europe's busiest travel hub. The airport is a major gateway for American travelers to Europe and expects disruption for days, with at least
1:28.9	1,300 flights affected today alone. About 120 aircraft were on route to Heathrow when the fire
1:35.7	broke out, with those flights having to either land at a different airport or return home.
1:40.9	Here's the moment that an American Airlines pilot flying from North Carolina to Heathrow
1:45.0	had to do just that. We have made a 180-degree turn. We are headed back to Charlotte. Let me tell you
1:52.5	what's going on. There was a huge fire in the power substation at London Heathrow. Their runways have lights, but there's no power
2:03.6	at all the terminals, and they are not accepting flights into London Heathrow for the next 22 hours.
2:10.8	Here with the very latest, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal Aviation Reporter Ben Katz.
2:15.7	Ben, what do we know at this hour about what caused this and
2:18.8	describe to us the effects we're seeing downstream? At the moment, we're not sure what the cause
2:23.1	was. We understand, of course, there was a fire that broke out at a substation in West London.
	...

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