Some travelers go to weddings, some attend funerals. Others took vacations at Disneyland Paris, traveled to the UK by business, returned home from Italy’s honeymoon or moved to Australia.
Instead, on Friday, they found themselves sitting on the airport floor, taking a bus or checking into a hotel as thousands of passengers were stranded – unable to reach their destination due to a power outage at the shutdown of Heathrow Airport.
“It’s a crazy situation,” said Roxanna Bagherzadeh, who was in London for the celebration of her family’s disappearance as her flight from New York never took off.
Some flights were adapted into Midocsian in Madrid or Montreal. Others were forced to look back altogether. Travelers at American schools are held in London. Musicians fear they will miss the show. Some travelers are circling detours throughout Europe to reach their families. Others had to give up on big plans.
“I’m going to propose,” said Kevin Black, a bassist who toured with the band, who was supposed to be joined by his girlfriend on Friday. But her flight turned around and took her back to Nashville. They will meet in Paris.
“It will be one of the bridges overlooking the river at sunset in Love City,” Mr. Black said, adding, “But it could be a Tennessee waterfall.” “What can I do.”
As airlines struggle to deal with a large number of demands, many passengers cannot reach them. Travelers said flights were booked soon for the next few days, and the only remaining planes were expensive.
As many Americans start spring break, disrupting family plans, power outages also occur.
“We cried at home, not fish and chips,” said David Mahler, 47, who was flying around Los Angeles in Colorado as their wife and the 11-year-old twin boy flew from Los Angeles to London. He said they are now back home looking for other options for spring break, but international flights are becoming too expensive. “We’re a little stuck,” he said.
When Gatwick, a passenger from London’s second largest airport, takes many flights to Heathrow, stands on Help Dark. Heathrow Airport is usually one of the busiest airports in the world, desolate. The descent area of Terminal 3 is silent, with the runway and airline counters empty.
A teacher who tried to return to Dallas tried to walk between terminals while she was on the bus and was not allowed to enter Heathrow Airport. Another traveler, Monel Bailey, tried to walk along the highway to the terminal when his Uber was blocked by police. Bailey said that was a “chaotic scene.”
The power outage caused by a fire at a substation near Heathrow Airport forced authorities to close the airport for most of Friday. While some flights are scheduled to resume late Friday, airline officials warned that travel disruptions could last for several days.
On Friday morning, a glance at the flight information committee at Heathrow Airport puts people at how big the closed shock wave is. Flights from Brian, India and Vietnam were originally scheduled to land, and passengers have been expecting to board the plane to dozens of destinations: Miami, Singapore, Tokyo…the list continues.
Rachel Morris eagerly awaits her sister to join her bridal shower on Saturday, but her flight from London was cancelled. “I was destroyed,” Ms. Morris said. “She was my maid of honor and my best friend, and she planned the whole thing.”
Stephen McCray is trapped in London, where he set out from Seattle to participate in his wife’s first horror novel.
“We want to go home,” said Mr. McCree, 36. “Our dogs are waiting for us.”
Travelers go to social media to complain about the destruction and beg airlines for help. One person wrote that he had to quit the Pokémon Go championship and she could no longer compete in the half marathon she trained.
“It’s hard to miss it,” said the half marathon runner Samira de Blij, who plans to fly from Amsterdam to Amsterdam to compete in Reading on Sunday.
Ms Bagherzadeh posted what she called “the most pathetic travel video blog ever” on Tiktok. In it, she sat on the plane, took the first step in the on-board skin care routine and braided her hair so the flight wouldn’t be messy.
“What is it all,” she said on the phone.
Ms. Bagzad, 27, intends to have dinner with her grandmother, who travels from France to the UK. Instead, she sat on the plane on the tarmac for two hours before getting off the boat and heading home.
Ms. Bagzad said: “I cried very quickly because I wanted to see my mother.”
Dozens of airlines from around 180 cities around the world flew to Heathrow Airport. When the airport was closed, many aircraft that were already in the air were forced to move elsewhere. New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport is scheduled to arrive at Heathrow on Friday. Some were transferred to Manchester, northwest England; to Glasgow; or to Reykjavik, Iceland.
Aviation Analytics Company Cirius said 290,000 passengers traveling or going out at Heathrow Airport could be affected by the closure. Cirium said on Friday, 669 flights were planned to take off from Heathrow Airport.
Heathrow is the main hub for British Airways, which says it is redirecting flights to other UK airports where possible.
At Rome’s Fiumicino Airport, dozens of people lined up at British Airways counters, including a group of high school students from Arizona who plan to fly home via Heathrow Airport after spending a week in Italy.
In chaos, panic and frustration, some people are still trying to see the upward space.
Marilyn Leblanc said she would fly from Boston to Dublin due to the fire at Heathrow. However, as the planes needed to refuel, they were transferred to Canadian fuel.
“So we left Boston around 7pm on Thursday and returned at 5am on Friday,” Ms. LeBron said. “Just a nice Sunday to drive around the sea!”
Reported by Nicholas Young From Singapore; Jonathan Wolfe and Lynsey Chutel from London; and Matthew Mpoke Bigg From Rome.
