Heathrow power outage disrupts flights worldwide, including at SFO

SAN FRANCISCO - The shutdown of London’s Heathrow Airport caused ripple effects worldwide, including in the Bay Area.

Air travel chaos

What we know:

A power outage late Thursday knocked out operations at Heathrow, one of the world’s busiest airports for international travel. The blackout was triggered by a fire and the loss of more than 6,000 gallons of cooling oil from a transformer at a nearby electrical substation.

"We lost a major part of our power, one out of three substations. Two substations can run the airport, but we need to reengineer the structure of the power supply for all the terminals and that's what we were doing during the day, and then we have to restart all the systems and that's what we've done, and we now see operations coming back," says Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow Airport CEO.

The disruption affected around 200,000 travelers, including some at San Francisco International Airport who had been scheduled to fly through Heathrow on Friday. The impact is expected to last for days as passengers attempt to rebook and airlines work to reposition aircraft and crews.

"It's my first time here in the United States. I was really excited," said Jamie White.

The excitement has faded.

Passengers stranded

What they're saying:

White and a plane full of passengers headed to London were forced to turn back to SFO three hours into their flight.

"Devastated, annoyed. I know these things happen — it just had to happen the one time I was coming home," White said. "If anything, I promised my son I would be seeing him shortly, and now I’ve got to wait any number of days until I can go home."

For travelers, the power outage at Heathrow was a nightmare.

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"Immediately I thought, how are we getting to the snowboarding trip tomorrow with 25 people?" said Pete Hill.

"We've just been really confused. And we're not sure what's happening. Last night they said our flight would maybe go out today. But coming here it says it's canceled, and we just don't know," says Laura Stanley who was headed to London for spring break.

"There's nothing at all and all the phone lines and stuff like that they don't go through because everyone's trying to call them," says traveler Ben Murch who was in San Francisco for a tech conference.

Heathrow is a key hub for connecting flights from North America to other parts of the world.

Travel expert Gabe Saglie said that while airlines may not be responsible for delays in cases like this, they should assist travelers.

"You are certainly entitled to a rebooked flight," Saglie said. "You are allowed to rebook flights to other airports to get you to London, or to get you to another destination (where) you can connect to London, without paying all those extra fees."

Saglie recommends travelers set aside 25% of their trip budget for unexpected expenses, such as emergency rebookings. Often, passengers must pay up front and get reimbursed later.

Hill is just trying to get home.

"Right now, we’re trying to get the quickest flight out of here and try to get to Geneva as quickly as possible," he said

Travel at Heathrow coming back to life

Heathrow Airport has begun resuming operations, and flights from SFO to Heathrow are back on schedule.