Flights forced to turn back to India, Caribbean and US as Heathrow closure causes travel chaos worldwide with more than 200,000 passengers left stranded at airports
The temporary closure of London's Heathrow Airport has caused travel chaos across the globe, as tens of thousands of passengers have been stranded at airports in the US, the Caribbean, Europe and India, while many more have been left stranded in the air.
As one of the world's busiest airports handling around 1,300 take-offs and landings each day, the disruption caused by Heathrow's closure following a fire at a nearby electricity substation has created a chain of problems.
When London's Heathrow closed at around 3am, 120 flights were already on their way to it, according to Flightradar24. Of those, 36 were still in the air four hours later as pilots - mostly flying from Asia - scrambled to find an alternative airport to land at.
Passengers from San Francisco and Perth in Australia were caught in the air, with data firm Cirium estimating that 290,000 people who were scheduled to fly to or from Heathrow will be affected by the situation.
Dozens of flights have been diverted to Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lyon and other European cities, stranding tens of thousands of people abroad.
Some planes were even forced to turn back and land in New York, Los Angeles, Mumbai and Delhi, where Air India has now canceled all its flights to London.
Meanwhile, all 34 flights scheduled from Dublin to Heathrow today have been cancelled. (A2 Televizion)
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