WSJ What’s News - Power Outage Shuts Heathrow Airport, Snarling Travel

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

A.M. Edition for Mar. 21. WSJ aviation reporter Ben Katz describes how a fire at an electrical substation is having widespread ramifications as passengers, flights and goods into Europe’s busiest airport are left stranded or diverted. Plus, protests in Israel after Prime Minister Netanyahu fires his intelligence chief, tightening his grip on power. And Elon Musk is set to receive a top-secret Pentagon briefing on U.S. war plans for China. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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shuts London's Heathrow Airport. As we know in the aviation world, schedules are really tight. It takes a long time to recover from this type of disruption. So really a significant moment today. Plus protests in Israel after Prime Minister Netanyahu fires his intelligence chief, tightening his grip on power. And Elon Musk is set to receive a top-secret Pentagon briefing today.

It's Friday, March 21st. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal, and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. London's Heathrow Airport is shut after an electrical fire knocked out power to Europe's busiest travel hub. The airport is a major gateway for American travelers to Europe and expects disruption for days with at least 1300 flights affected today alone. About 120 aircraft were en route to Heathrow when the fire broke out, with those flights having to either land at a different airport or return home. Here's the moment that an American Airlines pilot flying from North Carolina to Heathrow

had to do just that. We have made a 180 degree turn. We are headed back to Charlotte. Let me tell you what's going on. There was a huge fire in the power substation at London Heathrow. The runway's have lights, but there's no power at all at the terminals, and they are not accepting flights into London Heathrow for the next 22 hours. Here with the very latest, I'm joined by Wall Street Journal aviation reporter Ben Katz. Ben, what do we know at this hour about what caused this and describe to us the effects we're seeing downstream? Ben Katz, Journalist, Wall Street Journal

At the moment, we're not sure what the cause was. We understand, of course, there was a fire that broke out at a substation in West London. That's, of course, where London Heathrow is based. That's led to, as you mentioned, 1300 flights that were scheduled to fly into and out of Heathrow Airport on Friday being disrupted, many cancelled, over 100 that have been diverted.

But I think you really touched on the most important part, which is this question of how long will this last? As we know in the aviation world, schedules are really tight. It takes a long time to recover from this type of disruption. So really a significant moment today, just in terms of travel. Disruption for air passengers, cargo, I imagine, affected as well, some economic ripple effects here? Yes, absolutely. I mean, Heathrow is a huge port. So this disruption doesn't just impact the lives and experiences of the passengers on board, but also it has a knock-on effect on the broader economy. London also does have a number of other airports that feed into the main city, none of which actually have close to the amount of capacity that Heathrow

does. This is a critical port, not just in terms of aviation, but across the country. If you're looking at shipping ports, if you're looking at borders, I mean, Heathrow really is at the center of movement of people and goods in and out of the country. How you can kind of compensate with that with much smaller airports around the city or around the country, really unclear. So the rolling impacts, I think people will be watching very closely. It does seem remarkable, does it not? A single point of failure for such a key piece of infrastructure? It is an interesting question and one that we've been asking about and curious to kind of investigate a bit further.

You do ask the questions about generators, things like that, what alternatives, what is Heathrow's backup plan? These are questions that we're still really trying to find out the answer to. We know that National Grid, which is the company that owns the substation in the west of London, that they're working really rapidly with the fire brigade to try and get things up and running as quickly as possible. The other thing maybe worth pointing out is that this has knock on effects, not just in terms of aviation,

but across the entire city. So the capital has not been brought to a standstill, but massive delays have been reported on the trains, on the London Underground. Thousands of homes and businesses have gone without power. This is and will become a massive topic within the British media, within the British political realm. How did this happen?

How did a fire at a substation bring such a massive halt to such an important part of the country's operations? That was Journal Aviation reporter Ben Katz. Ben, thanks for stopping by. Thanks, Luke. Coming up, Elon Musk's top secret briefing on U.S. war plans for China, plus Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fires his domestic intelligence chief. We've got those stories and much more after the break.

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Annali Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. It's going how you hoped. Happy Face new series now streaming exclusively on Netflix. Elon Musk is set to be briefed today on the U.S. military's top secret war plans for China, according to two US officials, including about how American forces would fight along with maritime tactics and targeting plans. The meeting underscores the cross-cutting interests Musk has as a senior advisor to President Trump while being the head of US defense contractor SpaceX and Tesla, which relies on China for car production.

Musk, according to one person familiar with the arrangements, is receiving the briefing because he asked for one. While he has a security clearance, Musk isn't in the military chain of command or known to be a military advisor to Trump, though he has lately weighed in on defense acquisitions. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that Musk would visit the Pentagon on Friday, but disputed that he'd receive a sensitive China briefing. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that China will not even be mentioned or discussed at the Pentagon meeting.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked members of the Department of Government Efficiency from Social Security Administration systems that contain personal information saying their work was likely an illegal fishing expedition. The temporary restraining order bars DOJ employees or affiliates from accessing the agency's systems until they receive proper training on handling sensitive information. The judge also ordered them to delete all non-anonymous personal information that they'd gathered from the agency so far. An SSA spokesperson said it will work to comply with the court order, while White House spokesman

Harrison Fields described Judge Ellen Hollander as an activist trying to sabotage the president's work. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board says 68 bridges across the country should be inspected to assess whether they would collapse in the event of a vessel collision. The list includes New York's

Brooklyn, George Washington, Manhattan, Verrazano Narrows and Williamsburg bridges, along with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Here was NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. When we issue urgent recommendations we are saying there is a safety deficiency here, a potential safety risk and you need to take immediate action. So we will follow up with all

of the bridge owners over time. We will follow up with federal highways. We had a briefing with for federal highways today. I also called the state of Maryland to make sure they knew that we were issuing this, as well as several others. So we expect action. The NTSB recommendation comes as a part of its investigation into the destruction of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge last year after it was hit by a cargo ship killing six people.

Turning to Israel now, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired his domestic intelligence chief, arguing that Shin Bet director Ronen Barr had lost his trust. Barr's ouster is controversial because Shin Bet was investigating some of Netanyahu's aides. Barr has also been playing a key role in negotiations with Hamas to free hostages and reach a ceasefire deal. And following the move, thousands of people marched on Jerusalem to oppose Barr's removal and demand elections, while relatives of hostages gathered to call for a ceasefire.

We're just a few days after the war was resumed in Gaza, and we're very worried about the fate of all the hostages, because we know that the military pressure puts a very, very large risk on their lives. My cousin Karmel Gatt was murdered because of the military pressure, and we know that there are more than 20 hostages still alive in captivity.

We have to make sure that they're back alive." In a letter preempting his dismissal, Barr said the move was aimed at preventing his agency from investigating the failure to stop Hamas' October 7 attacks and would harm efforts to free hostages. And in market news today, Japan's consumer inflation slowed slightly in February to 3.7% from a year earlier, but continues trending up amid a record spike in rice prices and signs of strong wage growth. Those price pressures mean the Bank of Japan has room to keep tightening and move ahead

with interest rate hikes. Meanwhile, FedEx is warning that economic uncertainty is hurting its bottom line. The company cut its outlook for the year, citing soft demand for business-to-business shipments as a result of continued weakness in America's industrial economy, inflationary pressures, and uncertain global trade policies. FedEx shares fell in off-hours trading. And shares in consulting firm Accenture have also taken a hit after its CEO warned of ongoing uncertainty amid government efforts to rein in spending on federal contractors. According to a draft of a letter from the General Services Administration

viewed by the journal, the Trump Administration plans to ask Accenture and other consulting companies including IBM and Deloitte to create a scorecard within weeks to justify their work with the US government. For weeks, the Trump Administration has made it clear it wants to reduce consulting spending and that it expects firms to help. And that's it for What's News for this Friday morning. We had additional sound in this episode from Reuters. Today's show was produced by Kate Belevent with supervising producer Sondra Kilhoff, and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal.

We will be back tonight with a new show. Otherwise have a great weekend and thanks for listening.