Phillip Kizun found himself having to improvise on Friday as he tried to get from London to Dublin, typically a routine trip.
After finding out that his flight from Heathrow Airport had been canceled, Mr. Kizun, 58, took a train to Wales and then a ferry from the coastal town of Holyhead to the Irish capital. He met several European and American travelers who were doing the same.
“It was an absolute real ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles,’” Mr. Kizun said, minutes after arriving in Dublin for a work trip, referring to the 1987 Steve Martin-John Candy comedy.
Mr. Kizun, 58, of Chester County, Pa., was among the thousands of anguished travelers who found themselves stranded on Friday, after a fire at an energy substation near Heathrow caused a power outage that closed the airport for the better part of a day. Some Heathrow-bound flights turned around in midair, while many others did not take off, leaving confused and anxious passengers wondering when they might finally get where they were going.
The New York Times asked readers to share their stories. Some, like Mr. Kizun, found alternative routes. Others remained in a state of limbo. A few simply gave up.
Planes were turned around midflight.
Some planes that were already in the air turned around. That was the case for the one carrying Jeannie LaChance, who was traveling to London from Los Angeles with her sister and 2-year-old niece. About four hours into the flight, the pilot let the passengers know that there was a possible fire at Heathrow and that they would have to return.
“Everyone was pretty calm, which I think was nice because we’re all trapped in a plane,” Ms. LaChance, 31, said.
Henry Kofman, 20, a sophomore at the University of Southern California, chose London as a spring break because of its theater scene. He was having such a good time that he decided to extend his trip by a day.
Tough luck. He was up late watching the “Severance” season finale when he got a news alert on his phone that Heathrow had been shut down. It seemed unreal.
“I just don’t find it believable that the busiest airport in Europe is just gone for the day,” he said.
Mr. Kofman is hoping that operations return to normal on Saturday, as airport officials have promised, so he can be back in Los Angeles in time for classes to resume on Monday.
Some travelers changed their itineraries.
Cyndi Darlington, a marketing executive, was set to take her best friend on her first overseas trip, to London and Rome. The pair sat on the plane for three hours at the San Diego airport. When they were told that the flight had been canceled, Ms. Darlington and her friend moved swiftly to reorganize their trip. Now they will head straight to Rome, cutting two days off their vacation.
“We overheard people on the plane talking about going to a wedding and making connections,” Ms. Darlington said. “And so we feel that we’re kind of lucky. And we only lost two days.”
The outage forced some passengers to cancel their trips entirely. Iris Planamento was on a plane at Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday night, waiting to take off for a package tour that would take her to London, Normandy and Paris. After her flight was canceled, she visited an online chat forum for the tour, where people were sharing stories about being turned back midair or otherwise being diverted or delayed. Not wanting to deal with the stress, Ms. Planamento, 72, canceled her trip.
“I have to tell you that I am not a person who has anxiety problems,” she said. “For the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling a lot of anxiety. I’ve never felt that before, and yesterday was especially bad until I got to the airport and had a few drinks. Today I’m fine. I feel I’m disappointed. But the anxiety is gone.”
Camille Dee, 74, of Roslyn, N.Y., and her husband were supposed to take off from Kennedy International Airport for London on Friday night for what she described as their first vacation in six years. Their flight was canceled, and the earliest rescheduled flight that the airline is offering her is on Monday. Worried that the new itinerary may cost her hundreds of dollars in nonrefundable hotel fees and other associated costs, she is considering canceling the trip, though she did allow that her travails amounted to a “first-world problem.”
“After this, it’s going to be a while before I decide to go back to London, because this whole thing has left such a bad taste in my mouth,” Ms. Dee said.
‘A little unnerving’: The closure fueled anxiety.
Alyse Franklin, 22, a senior at Indiana University, was stressed out, not knowing when she would be able to make it home from a spring break trip with 19 classmates from her international marketing and communications class.
“Flying in general kind of makes me feel a little ill,” Ms. Franklin said. “So it’s not fun to fly already, but the fact that we don’t know when it’s going to happen and it feels like I can’t mentally prepare for it, it’s a little unnerving.”