Some passengers headed for weddings, some to funerals. Others went on vacation in Disneyland in Paris, embarked on a business trip to Britain, returned home from a honeymoon in Italy or moved to Australia.
Instead, on Friday they found themselves sitting at the airport floors, riding buses or applying for hotels while tens of thousands of passengers were stranded – they could not reach their destinations because of the power disappearance that turned off the Heathrow Airport.
“It’s a crazy situation,” said Roxanna Bagherzadeh, who lacked Persian New Year’s celebration with her family in London because her New York flight never took off.
Some flights are diverted to Midocean for Madrid or Montreal. Others were forced to turn completely. In London, US school tripers were held. The musicians worried that they would miss their performances. Some passengers embarked on circular visits across Europe to reach their families. Others had to give up big plans.
“I intended to suggest,” said Kevin Black, a bassist who toured Europe with his band, who was supposed to join his girlfriend. But the flight turned to her and took her back to Nashville.
“It will be at one of the bridges overlooking the river at sunset” in Paris, Mr. Black said of his planned proposal on their European trip. Now he said, “He’ll probably be on a waterfall in Tennessee. What can I do?”
With airline companies struggling to respond to huge amounts of requests, many passengers could not reach them. Flights were quickly booked for the next few days, and the only left behind had excessive prices, passengers said.
The disadvantage also came because many Americans started with spring holidays, disturbing family plans.
“Instead of fish and chips, we have children who cry at home,” said David Mahler, 47, who flew with his wife and 11-year-old twins boys to London from Los Angeles when their flight was turned to Colorado. Now they have returned home looking for other spring vacation options, he said, but international flights became too expensive. “We’re somehow stuck,” he said.
While passengers at the second largest airport in London, Gatwick, who received many flights that headed to Heathrow, stood in long lines on the help tables. Heathrow, which is usually one of the most prominent airports in the world, was abandoned. The Zone drops at Terminal 3 was quiet, and the runways and airlines were empty.
A teacher trying to get home to Dallas tried to walk between a terminal when a bus where she was not allowed to enter Heathrow. The second passenger, Monel Bailey, tried to walk to the terminal with a bag with bags when his Uber stopped police who blocked the route to the terminal. It was a “scene of chaos,” Mr. Bailey said.
The lack of electricity, caused by fire in electric substation near Heathrow, forced the authorities to close the airport most of the Friday. While some flights were supposed to continue later on Friday, airline officials warned that travel disorders could take days.
The view of the Heathrow board with flight information on Friday morning gave the feeling of how big a shock waves would be from closing. Flights from Brunei, India and Vietnam were supposed to land, and passengers were expected to correspond to the planes to dozens of destinations: Miami, Singapore, Tokyo … the list continued.
Rachel Morris was eagerly waiting for her sister to join her in Philadelphia on the bride on Saturday, but the flight from London was canceled. “I’m devastated,” Mrs. Morris said. “She’s my maid and my best friend and planned the whole thing.”
Stephen McCray was stranded in London, where he traveled from Seattle on a tour of a book for debut horror novel by his wife.
“We want to get home,” said Mr. McCray (36). “Our dogs are waiting for us.”
Passengers headed for social media to complain of disorders and begging airline companies for help. One wrote that had to get out Since the Pokémon Go Championship, another one who could no longer run in the half marathon she trained for.
“It’s sad to miss,” said Half -Marathon runner, Samira de Bli, who planned to fly from Amsterdam on Sunday for a Reading race, west of London.
Mrs. Bagherzadeh posted on Tictok what she called “the saddest trips of all time.” She was sitting on the plane in it, making the first step of her skin care routine and knit her hair so that she would not be messy on the flight.
“Everything was for nothing,” she said with a phone call.
Mrs. Bagherzadeh, 27, intended to have dinner with her grandmother, who traveled to Britain from France. Instead, she was sitting on a plane on the asphalt two hours before disembarking and returning home.
“I cried quickly because I wanted to see my mom,” said Mrs. Bagherzadeh.
Dozens of airlines fly to Heathrow from about 180 cities around the world. Many aircraft were already forced to divert the air elsewhere when the airport closed. John F. Kennedy’s International Airport in New York had the most flights on Friday in Heathrow; Some are diverted to Manchester, in northwestern England; in Glasgow; or Reykjavik, Iceland.
As many as 290,000 passengers traveling to or outside Heathrow could influence the closure, according to the Cirium, the Aviation Analytics company. On Friday, 669 flights had to take off from Heathrow, Cirium said.
Heathrow is the main center for British Airways, who said the diverting of flights to other airports in Britain when possible.
At Fiumicino Airport in Rome, dozens stood in line at the British Airways counter, including a group of Arizona high school students who planned to fly home over Heathrow after a week.
Among the chaos, panic and frustration, some still tried to look upside down.
Marilyn Leblanc said she flew from Boston to Dublin when the pilot announced that he would be returned back to Heathrow because of the fire in Heathrow. But since the plane was supposed to fill the fuel, they were diverted to Canada for fuel.
“So, we left Boston on Thursday night around 7pm and arrived on Friday morning at 5am,” said Mrs. Leblanc. “Just a nice Sunday ride around the ocean!”
Reporting contributed Nicholas yong from Singapore; Jonathan Wolfe and Lynsey Chutel from London; and Matthew Mpoke Bigg from Rome.
