Saving the day: Firefighters dousing flames at a substation supplying power to Heathrow Airport in London. — AFP
PETALING JAYA: Four Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flights to Britain were disrupted as international travel was thrown into chaos following incidents at two major airports on different sides of the world.
According to Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), the MAS flights were affected following a huge fire at Heathrow Airport in London.
Also yesterday, a massive volcanic eruption that hit Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province the night before caused flights to be delayed or cancelled at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali.
MAG said Flight MH2, which departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 11.37pm on Thursday, was diverted to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
"The flight carrying 246 passengers and 17 crew members landed safely at 6.19am, Amsterdam local time.
"Passengers are accommodated at hotels near the airport and some have been transferred on other flights,” MAG, the parent company of Malaysia Airlines Bhd, said in a statement yesterday.
In the morning, Heathrow Airport had experienced a significant power outage after a fire at an electrical substation on its premises, causing it to be closed for the entire day.
MAG said other flights impacted were MH4, which arrived in Kuala Lumpur from London at 3.30pm yesterday, with 187 passengers and 17 crew members.
Other flights affected were MH1 and MH3, which were scheduled to depart London for Kuala Lumpur.
"Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets the inconvenience and disruptions to our passengers’ travel plans. Safety remains our number one priority,” added MAG.
According to flight tracker Flightradar24, at least 1,351 flights to and from London were disrupted by the closure of Heathrow.
"That doesn’t include any flights that might be cancelled or delayed due to aircraft being out of position,” it said.
Experts said about 200,000 passengers are expected to be affected by the closure of Heathrow Airport, the world’s fifth busiest that handled 83.9 million passengers last year.
Meanwhile, several flights were delayed or cancelled yesterday morning at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on the Indonesian resort island, following a volcanic eruption at Mount Lewotobi in East Nusa Tenggara province the night before.
Batik Air CEO Datuk Chandran Rama Muthy said the regional airline was not affected by the eruption at Mount Lewotobi's Laki-laki volcano, located about 1,330km from Bali.
"So far, no impact to us yet. But we are watching the situation closely,” added Chandran.
According to reports, the incident caused at least six Jetstar Airways flights to be temporarily grounded yesterday morning.
Later, Jetstar said it had resumed flights at Ngurah Rai at about 1.30pm.
"Safety is always our number one priority and our teams will continue to monitor the situation closely and contact customers directly by SMS and e-mail if there is any further impact to our flights,” it said.
In November last year, at least nine people were killed and thousands evacuated when the Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano erupted.
The 1,584m-high Mount Lewotobi is one of 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia.
