Counter terrorism police are now leading the investigation into an electrical substation fire that has forced the closure of London Heathrow Airport today. There are concerns that the incident could be a deliberate act of sabotage linked to Russian interference tactics.
The shutdown of Heathrow Airport will affect over 1,300 flights, causing significant disruptions to travelers. The fire at the North Hyde electrical substation led to the airport’s closure, impacting both incoming and outgoing flights.
Following the blaze at the substation, which resulted in a large explosion and power outages for nearby residents, more than 100 individuals had to be evacuated from the area for safety reasons.
Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.
They allege that the disruption campaign is an extension of President Putin’s war, intended to sow division in European societies and undermine support for Ukraine – although the Kremlin has denied carrying out sabotage efforts against the West.
Earlier this week, Putin had agreed to a limited ceasefire that stops Russia targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure after a phone call with US President Donald Trump.
Now, experts are analysing whether Russia could be linked to the UK substation fire, which is affecting 679 flights scheduled to land and 678 departures from Heathrow.
Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command is leading the investigation given the need to quickly establish whether sabotage was involved and the security questions relating to how one fire took down a major piece of infrastructure. It comes as:
This map shows disruption incidents Western officials have blamed on Russia and its proxies
It comes after Russian spies sent a package of electric sex toys to western Europe before concealing incendiary devices ignited in UK and German DHL depots last July in what was alleged to have been a test run for a potential US-bound flight attack.
Reacting to the Heathrow fire today, security expert Will Geddes, director and founder of the International Corporate Protection Group, told MailOnline: ‘Heathrow has been looking at expanding – this isn’t a great advert for their ability to do so safely.
‘If I was a foreign hostile party and I wanted to disrupt one of the busiest airports in the world, cause international embarrassment, create many, many question marks, I would target something like a substation.
‘The Russians are looking at everything. They’re looking at our fibre optics under the sea, they’re looking at our nuclear power stations, we know hostile reconnaissance is going on right now.
‘So for this to be taken down so easily and cause such an impact, one has got to say if I was Russia, that’s where I would focus my attentions as well.’
He said the incident had the potential to be a similar act of sabotage to the fires on railway tracks in France ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics last July.
Mr Geddes continued: ‘If anybody did this it would either be down to some serious reconnaissance in advance to determine that this was a massive vulnerability.
‘They would have had to determine what leaning and what depth of responsibility and sort of impact would this substation have not only obviously on the local homes, but also on Heathrow Airport itself.
‘Or you’ve got the easier, simpler answer that these guys have fallen asleep and they have not battle readied this substation for any type of eventuality of potential power outs, fires or anything like that.
‘Where is the fire suppression system, why has that not worked? Is that because it’s faulty or because it has been tampered with?’
He said Russia and other hostile states would be glad to see the chaos it has caused ‘and it’s not outside the scope of a foreign hostile state to attack a substation or a power or utility supply to a key site.’
Bob Seely, a Russia expert and former Conservative MP, told MailOnline that the chaos at Heathrow was at least a ‘warning’ about the threat of sabotage.
He said: ‘This has exposed a massive security vulnerability. If a substation fire can shut down one of the world’s largest airports and Britain’s busiest airport, it shows a dangerous lack of resilience.
‘We should be building resilience into our critical national infrastructure, especially given the rise in Russian sabotage operations in Europe as well as the threat of home-grown terrorism or extremist protests designed to bring modern life to a halt.’
Dr Seely, whose new book ‘New Total War’ is out this summer, added: ‘Until we see different, this was very likely to have been an accident, but it is also a warning to us.
‘We need to design in and build in greater resilience in our critical national infrastructure.’
Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes said: ‘Folk who track Russia’s campaign of unconventional warfare in Europe will likely wake up wondering if the fire that cut power to Heathrow was an accident or something sinister.
‘Understanding how or why the fire at a substation started will of course be key. Either way… this does really rather highlight the vulnerability of a piece of national infrastructure as critical as our largest and most important civilian airport.’
And Professor Lucy Easthope, an adviser on disaster response and recovery, and author of ‘When the Dust Settles’, added: ‘It actually does not matter whether it was a Bic lighter and pile of newspapers or a deliberate attack.
‘Either shows up the current vulnerability of national infrastructure, civil defence – I use that term deliberately – and the resourcing of response and readiness.’
It comes after Richard Gaisford, chief correspondent for ITV’s Good Morning Britain, said: ‘Heathrow Airport is a key piece of UK national infrastructure.
‘Now brought to a standstill by a fire outside of its well protected boundaries, that creates chaos around the world. Security services must be considering sabotage.’
And Nick Ferrari asked on his LBC radio breakfast show: ‘Anybody know where Vladimir Putin was last night wandering around with a can of unleaded?’
Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, estimated that the cost of the impact to the global aviation system could total around £20million a day, with no guarantee that Heathrow will reopen on Saturday.
Meanwhile former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev tweeted: ‘I’m looking forward to Russia being blamed for the Heathrow fire. What are you waiting for, Starmer?’
And Russian trolls on social media claimed the Heathrow fire could have been a Putin sabotage operation.
One post on Kremlin-funded Readovka Telegram channel declared: ‘Petrov and Boshirov came to see the cathedral again.’
Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – real names Anatoliy Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin – were the notorious suspects in the Novichok poisonings of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018.
The GRU military intelligence officers, who posed as tourists visiting Salisbury Cathedral, are both wanted in Britain for murder and attempted murder.
But they have since been claimed to be spearheading a major Russian operation to sabotage Western countries.
Another comment said: ‘Are Petrov and Boshirov on vacation?’ And a third wrote: ‘Now Petrov and Boshirov went to see Big Ben. The excursion was a success.’
A fourth said: ‘Thus [with this fire] Putin is trying to break the will of the British people to help their Ukrainian brothers for free.’
And a fifth added said: ‘Are they going to look for a ‘Russian trace’ again?’
Back in the UK, the chairwoman of the Commons transport committee said it was ‘speculative’ to suggest at the moment that something sinister caused the Heathrow fire.
Asked by Times Radio if she thought the fire may have been caused intentionally, Labour MP Ruth Cadbury replied: ‘I think that’s somewhat speculative.
‘There are obviously questions about it, and I don’t know enough about electricity, but for the airport to be dependent on one substation, it does raise questions.’
She added it was ‘very, very concerning’ that ‘one substation can close down an airport and there isn’t an alternative source of energy’.
Meanwhile Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said the Government was doing everything it could to restore power to Heathrow.
He was asked by Sky News whether a Cobra meeting of senior ministers would be convened to address the matter.
Mr Miliband replied: ‘I’m sure the Government will be convening in the most appropriate way. I’m not going to anticipate the precise form of that, but I’m already in touch with my colleagues on this issue.
‘As I say, I’ve spoken to the National Grid, who are really at the epicentre of this, and we will be doing everything we can, both to restore power and help the National Grid.
‘To do that, and to ensure that the DfT (Department for Transport), and the Government as a whole, plays its part in, as best we can, minimising the disruption to passengers.’
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Miliband said the fire was ‘an unprecedented event’ and ‘we will have to look hard’ at ‘resilience’ for major institutions such as the airport.
He told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I spoke to the National Grid this morning. There’s obviously been a catastrophic fire at this substation, an unprecedented event actually in their experience.
‘It appears to have knocked out a back-up generator as well as the substation itself. What I know is that they are working as hard as they can to restore power as well as the fire being put out.
‘It’s too early to say what caused this but I think obviously we will have to look hard at the causes and also the protection and the resilience that is in place for major institutions like Heathrow. With any event like this we’ll have to both understand its causes and learn lessons from it.’
Aviation consultant John van Hoogstraten said the airport should have been able to rely on its own diesel generators and alternate power cables from the National Grid.
He added that that the apparent failure to provide back-up power pointed to a lack of testing of ‘business continuity’ plans.
Mr van Hoogstraten of Straten Consulting Services said that airports should ideally have separate power cables attached to the grid with one acting as ‘a redundancy network’ to be used in the event of a failure of the main supply.
He told MailOnline: ‘Unfortunately a lot of the times, the cables end up coming from the same sub-station and if you have a sub-station failure, then your redundancy line fails as well.
‘I have seen that so many times in architectural drawings in planning stages where you have a separate line, which goes to the same substation.’
Mr van Hoogsraten said he believed Heathrow would also have had six or seven diesel generator plants spread over different sites to provide power for each terminal, air traffic control and auxiliary services.
He said: ‘Normally the redundancy systems are large diesel engines situated somewhere within airport buildings. The switch over protocol is normally within three seconds. You notice a flick of the lights when they switch on and that is about t.
‘They will run primary power around the airport facility. They should have multiple generators on site. Each terminal should have its own generators. They are massive and the size of large shipping containers.
‘They can run a substantial amount of electricity and can go on for as long as you put in diesel with a tank normally lasting 24 hours.
‘I was a little bit surprised when I heard that it was an off-site issue at a sub-station which caused the whole airport to close. That is quite significant that the internal systems failed to pick up the load.
‘The first question to ask is what testing protocol do they have for their back-up systems. It would appear that the testing protocols were not sufficient. Maybe they test every 12 months? Should they be doing it every 30 to 60 days? These are the questions that need to be asked.
‘The difficulty in business continuity is trying to predict what could go wrong. A power failure is one of the prime things you should look at.’
He added: ‘To shut a whole airport for an entire day due to a fire at a substation tells of a significant failure of a business continuity plan. Business continuity is great as a paper plan but it rarely gets tested in earnest. Unfortunately on days like today it does get tested and it is found to fail
‘Whilst they may have all the backups in place, they need a mechanism to test it enough. But testing is a cost impact to the business so this is where business continuity tends to fall apart.’
Speaking about when disruption could end, Mr van Hoogstraten also said: ‘It is the whole domino effect of flights catching up. It’s going to take a minimum of a week to catch up and that’s being optimistic.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘We are working with the London Fire Brigade to establish the cause of the fire which remains under investigation.
‘While there is currently no indication of foul play we retain an open mind at this time. Given the location of the substation and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure, the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command is now leading enquiries.
‘This is due to the specialist resources and capabilities within that command that can assist in progressing this investigation at pace to minimise disruption and identify the cause.’
A Heathrow spokesperson said: ‘Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage across the airport due to a large fire at a nearby electrical substation. Whilst fire crews are responding to the incident, we do not have clarity on when power may be reliably restored.
‘To maintain the safety of our passengers and colleagues, we have no choice but to close Heathrow until 11.59pm on March 21, 2025. We expect significant disruption over the coming days and passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens.
‘We will provide an update when more information on the resumption of operations is available. We know this will be disappointing for passengers and we want to reassure that we are working as hard as possible to resolve the situation.’
This is believed to be the worse disruption at Heathrow since December 18-23 2010, when thousands of Christmas getaway passengers camped in the terminals because of widespread cancellations caused by snow.
An inquiry found the clearing of aircraft stands was slower than required.
In April of that year, air travel was grounded across Europe because of an ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcanic eruption.
A system failure suffered by air traffic control provider Nats in August 2023 led to flights being cancelled across the UK for several hours.
Online tracking services showed flights being diverted to Gatwick, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and Ireland’s Shannon Airport. A number of flights were also turned around and returned to airports in Canada and the United States.
Gatwick Airport accepted seven diverted flights from locations including Singapore, Johannesburg, Lagos, Cape Town and Doha which were originally destined for Heathrow.
Shannon Airport in Co Clare accepted six diversions from Toronto, Atlanta, Bridgetown Barbados, Boston, Orlando and Newark.
Aviation consultant John Strickland said the closure of Heathrow for an entire day is ‘a massive dislocation to have to recover from’.
He added: ‘Once an aircraft is in the wrong place with the crew, if you’re away from home you don’t have another crew to suddenly bring the plane and the passengers back.
‘You’ve got to wait until that crew has taken its rest, which is always required after a duty period.
‘We’re talking about several days worth of disruption to get the planes recovered and start using them again to move planned and disrupted passengers.’
He likened the disruption to what happened after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, when flights were grounded across the US. He said: ‘It’s a contained version of 9/11’.
Mr Strickland also said the cost for the aviation industry will ‘run into millions’, adding: ‘You can’t quantify it yet.’
Rory Boland, editor of magazine Which? Travel, said affected passengers are not entitled to compensation but airlines should provide assistance such as overnight accommodation if required and re-routing bookings, including with rival carriers from alternative airports.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks said there was a large-scale power outage in Hayes, Hounslow and the surrounding areas impacting more than 16,300 homes.
According to the power company’s website, authorities aimed to restore power by 3pm today.
A National Grid spokesperson said the fire had damaged equipment and they were ‘working at speed to restore power supplies as quickly as possible’.
London Fire Brigade said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were still on the scene at Nestles Avenue in Hayes just before 6am with part of a transformer still alight.
Around 150 people have been evacuated from surrounding properties and a 200-metre cordon was been put in place as a precaution.
Assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne said at around 8am that the fire was ‘under control’.
He said: ‘This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible.
‘Thanks to their efforts and co-ordinated multi-agency response, we successfully contained the fire and prevented further spread.
‘We will maintain a presence at the scene throughout the day, assisting the National Grid as they assess the site.’
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said she heard a ‘massive explosion’ just before midnight.
All the power went off, she said, adding: ‘It just smelled like burning.’
Firefighters led 29 people from surrounding properties to safety.
London Ambulance Service said there were no casualties at the scene of the fire.
Footage posted to social media showed huge flames and large plumes of smoke coming from the facility.
The brigade said nearly 200 calls had been received in relation to the incident with crews from Hayes, Heathrow, Hillingdon, Southall and surrounding areas on the scene.
Emergency services were called to the scene at 11.23pm last night. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.
The fire came after the Associated Press documented 59 incidents in which European governments, prosecutors, intelligence services or other Western officials blamed Russia, groups linked to Russia or its ally Belarus for cyberattacks, spreading propaganda, plotting killings or committing acts of vandalism, arson, sabotage or espionage since the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The incidents range from stuffing car exhausts with expanding foam in Germany to a plot to plant explosives on cargo planes.
They include setting fire to stores and a museum; hacking that targeted politicians and critical infrastructure; and spying by a ring convicted in the UK.
Richard Moore, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6, called it a ‘staggeringly reckless campaign’ in November.
Proving Russia’s involvement in any incidents can be difficult, and the Kremlin has denied carrying out a sabotage campaign against the West – but more governments are publicly attributing attacks to Russia.
The alleged disruption has a double purpose, according to James Appathurai, the Nato official responsible for the alliance’s response to such threats.
One is to create ‘political disquiet’ and undermine citizens’ support for their governments and the other is to ‘undercut support for Ukraine,’ said Mr Appathurai, deputy assistant secretary-general for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber.
During its investigation, the AP spoke to 15 current officials, including two prime ministers, and officials from five European intelligence services, three defence ministries and Nato, in addition to experts.
Experts say the scope of the campaign is particularly worrying at a time when US support for Ukraine is wavering and European allies are questioning Washington’s reliability as a security partner and ally.
The cases are varied, and the largest concentrations are in countries that are major supporters of Ukraine.
Some incidents had the potential for catastrophic consequences, including mass casualties, as when packages exploded at shipping facilities in Germany and the UK Western officials said they suspected the packages were part of a broader plot by Russian intelligence to put bombs on cargo planes headed to the US and Canada.
In another case, Western intelligence agencies uncovered what they said was a Russian plot to kill the head of a major German arms manufacturer that is a supplier of weapons to Ukraine.
European authorities are investigating several cases of damage to infrastructure under the Baltic Sea, including to a power cable linking Estonia and Finland.
Finnish authorities detained a ship, suspected of being part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ used to avoid sanctions, after that cable and others were damaged.
When a fake French Defence Ministry website claimed citizens were being called up to fight in Ukraine, a French minister denounced it as Russian disinformation.
German authorities suspect Russia was behind a campaign to block up scores of car exhausts ahead of national elections, according to a European intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Officials from Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Finland, meanwhile, have accused Russia and Belarus of directing migrants to their borders.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told the AP that the Kremlin has never been shown ‘any proofs’ supporting the accusations and said ‘certainly we definitely reject any allegations.’
The AP scoured through hundreds of incidents suspected to be linked to Russia since Moscow’s invasion that were reported in open sources such as local media and government websites.
They were included in the AP’s tally only when officials drew a clear link to Russia, pro-Russian groups or ally Belarus.
Most of the accusations were made to or reported by the AP, either at the time they occurred or during the course of this investigation. Fourteen cases were reported by other news organizations and attributed to named officials.
In about a quarter of the cases, prosecutors have brought charges or courts have convicted people of carrying out the sabotage. But in many more, no specific culprit has been publicly identified or brought to justice.
Countries have always spied on their enemies and long waged propaganda campaigns to further their interests abroad.
But since the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has become ‘bolder,’ hitting the West with sabotage, vandalism and arson in addition to the tactics it previously used, including killings and cyberattacks, said Elisabeth Braw, an expert on the attacks at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
‘The way you can weaken a country today is not by invading it,’ she said.
China has also been accused of espionage and cyber operations in Europe, and The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian authorities were responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in 2022. Kyiv has denied this.
‘Multiple countries engage in hybrid operations,’ said David Salvo, managing director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund. ‘Russia is the overwhelming culprit in Europe.’
A coordinated approach – especially sharing intelligence – is critical to tracking and countering the threats, Mr Appathurai said.
That cooperation – never easy since intelligence is not shared collectively across Nato members – faces new challenges now, as the Trump administration increasingly questions the role of the alliance, embraces Russia and spars with its European partners.
Still, as the scale of the campaign becomes clearer, some nations are becoming more assertive.
Mr Appathurai pointed to the approach to suspected sabotage in the Baltic Sea, where Nato has launched a mission to protect critical infrastructure.
‘If we are to have a chance of stemming the threat,’ Ms Braw said, ‘then we have to work together.’
Meanwhile, Mr Miliband said today that Sir Keir Starmer is not moving away from the idea of placing British ground forces in Ukraine as part of a future peacekeeping deal.
The Prime Minister said yesterday that the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ was dividing its planning efforts between air, sea, land and borders, and regenerating Ukraine.
He did not explicitly repeat his previous commitment to put boots on the ground in Ukraine, leading some to speculate Sir Keir was shifting the emphasis of the mission.
But Mr Miliband signalled this was not the case. ‘I think people are over-interpreting what the Prime Minister said yesterday,’ he told Sky News.
The senior Cabinet minister added: ‘Look, I think work is obviously ongoing on the terms of a ceasefire and the protection that will be put in place to protect that ceasefire and to protect the people of Ukraine. That operational planning, that military planning, is ongoing.
‘You wouldn’t expect me to get into the detail of that but I don’t think people should jump to conclusions.
‘That planning is an ongoing process and obviously is one going on in concert with our allies, and indeed in concert with Ukraine and the government of Ukraine.’
Yesterday, Sir Keir met planners from 31 allied countries at Northwood military headquarters in North West London, to firm up proposals for the so-called coalition of the willing to help enforce any peace agreement.
European and Commonwealth nations have signed up to the allied effort, which would aim to deter Russia from breaking a ceasefire.
After the meeting, Sir Keir warned that Moscow would face ‘severe consequences’ if it breached any peace deal with Kyiv amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure a truce to end the war.
As Britain and its allies square up to Russia, Defence Secretary John Healey meanwhile told The Times that Britain could do ‘untold damage’ to adversaries with its nuclear deterrent.
Calls this week between Mr Trump, Mr Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have failed to produce the 30-day ceasefire envisaged by the White House.
Instead, the Russian leader agreed to a suspension of attacks on energy infrastructure, although Ukraine has said other civilian targets including a hospital have since been struck.
Mr Zelensky said he believes a ‘lasting peace can be achieved this year’ after he spoke on the phone with Mr Trump on Tuesday.
In the same call, the US leader suggested that Washington takes ownership of Ukrainian power plants to ensure their security, though his Ukrainian counterpart later said this would only relate to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in south-east Ukraine.
Further peace talks are due to take place in Saudi Arabia over the weekend, with delegations from Kyiv and Moscow expected to meet US officials.
