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Power Outage Forces Heathrow Airport to Fully Shut Down Operations for a Day; New Canadian P.M. Calls for a Snap Election; Kirsty Coventry Elects as New IOC President. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 03:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[03:00:00]

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UNKNOWN (voice-over): This is CNN Breaking News.

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."

It is 7 a.m. in London right now, where a major power outage has forced Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, to completely shut down. And that's leading to severe disruptions to global travel.

Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer and an electrical substation caught fire, sending smoke billowing through the area, 10 fire engines and dozens of firefighters have been working on the scene in West London. Around 150 people in the area have been evacuated from their homes.

So far, there's been no word on the cause of the blaze. Heathrow's closure is affecting more than 1,300 flights and upwards of 145,000 passengers in the hours ahead, according to monitoring sites Flightradar24 and Cirium.

All right, I want to bring in CNN's Nada Bashir in London. So, Nada, I understand you are near that substation that caught fire. What is the latest there?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kim. We're just behind the North Hyde substation. You can see the police cordon line behind me.

There has been a cordon put in place of around 200 meters around the substation. We've been hearing from officials from London Fire Brigade who have told us that while the fire is still ablaze within the substation, they have now contained the blaze. They are working to isolate the electricity in order to then allow firefighters to use firefighting foam to tackle the blaze that is said to be underway, but it's a process that could take hours.

And, of course, as we know, this has caused significant chaos, not only for the local community here. We know that some local residents were evacuated for their safety, around 29 people, in the early hours of this morning. Firefighters were actually called to the scene at around 11:20 p.m. last night.

But, of course, what has also really impacted the area is the power outages, not only for this local community and businesses in the area, but also, crucially, Heathrow Airport, which is about four miles from the substation in West London, in the Hayes area.

A complete power outage, which has caused a significant amount of disruption. Hundreds of flights expected to be impacted by what is now a total closure of Europe's busiest airport. Heathrow expects to be closed, according to airport officials, for the entire duration of Friday, but it could be even longer.

This total power outage, of course, will take significant work to rectify. We know that the national grid here in the U.K. has said that it is working at speed, that there has been damage to equipment within the substation, but that they are working to restore power for those supplied by this particular substation. But, again, for passengers impacted, this is hugely troubling news, a huge amount of chaos for the airport as they figure out what those next steps are.

And while we know the airport will be closed, as I mentioned, for the entire duration of Friday, again, this could take days to rectify. The chaos is going to be significant, not only for the airport, but also, of course, for passengers who had been hoping to transit or fly through the airport, including those who are already in the air. A number of flights have been forced to divert or be canceled, as well as return to their airport of origin.

So a huge amount of chaos here. As you can see behind me, there is a significant presence by fire crews, as well as ambulance and police officials who have cordoned off the area. We have seen local residents waking up to figure out what is actually happening in this area.

The firefighting team here has said that it is under control. They do not think the fire will spread, and so they do not feel that local residents are at risk. So at this stage, the real focus is on the chaos this will be causing for local businesses, residents, and, crucially, Heathrow Airport.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, crucially, exactly. Nada Bashir in London. Thanks so much.

Want to get more now from Tony Stanton at the consultancy Strategic Air. He's a former pilot and aviation regulator, and he joins me live from Sydney. Tony, thank you so much for being here with us.

So we know, I mean, Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, some quarter million passengers flying through there. Exactly how much chaos could this cause?

TONY STANTON, CONSULTANT DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC AIR, AND FORMER PILOT AND AVIATION REGULATOR: Oh, look, this event is unheard of. It is an absolute logistical nightmare for not only the airport itself, but, of course, the many affected airlines.

[03:05:04] There will be some 1300, 1400 flights affected for weeks to come by this event.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, weeks to come. I mean, the knock-on effects here. Explain why it would take so long, even if they were to fix this relatively quickly. Why would the knock-on effects last for possibly weeks?

STANTON: That's exactly right. I guess there's two phases to what we're seeing.

Phase one is dealing with the aircraft that are airborne at the moment. That's about alternates and that sort of thing. But as you rightly say, phase two is about moving from disruption through to regular scheduled services.

And that's incredibly complex because, as a result of phase one, you have aircraft that are not necessarily where you thought they would be. They're at airports that are not their planned alternates. Then they're at airports that do not necessarily have the support services that the airlines originally intended.

And so you have to establish those things, and that takes time. You've got pilots and flight crew and cabin crew and so forth that'll be out of flight and duty time. It's an incredibly complex thing to get the cog spinning again and to integrate aircraft that are not where you expected them to be.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. And you look at the types of flights that are coming here. We're talking about huge airplanes, passengers who are transiting from other continents and so on.

These passengers won't necessarily be first in the queue to get back on the next flights, right? I mean, they could be bumped for a while. So you have to think about those poor people who are now on these almost indefinite layovers.

STANTON: That's exactly right. It's not only the aircraft themselves that are, as I was saying, being diverted to alternates that were unexpected, because the alternates then became filled with capacity, so the aircraft's gone to somewhere else.

But you've got flights that didn't even depart. The flow on a flex through what we would call a complex socio-technical system, the flow on a flex are incredible and really will go on for weeks to come.

BRUNHUBER: Yes. In terms of, you touched on this, I mean, alternatives, you know, like Gatwick, in terms of diverting to other airports and so on, I mean, how does that work? How much capacity do they have?

STANTON: Yes, so as I say, to me, that's what I call phase one in dealing with this event. It's dealing with the aircraft that are airborne.

And that's about alternates. That's a routine thing that pilots and airlines do, is you would routinely plan for an alternate. Usually that's weather-based, you may not be able to land due to really poor weather conditions, for example.

So as part of your routine planning, you would ordinarily plan for an alternate. The problem we have here is what happens when your alternate needs an alternate and that alternate needs an alternate because those alternates have become filled to capacity because other aircraft are there.

So the provision of an alternate is not just about is the runway long enough and, you know, can we go and land there with instrument approaches and things like that. The hard part is you need all the support services to be there at that alternate. So ground crew, baggage handling crew, terminal staff, all those arrangements.

So alternates are a routine thing, but the problem we have here is your alternate needs an alternate.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, exactly right. And to talk about alternates, let's talk about the power itself. I mean, we know the power needs of an airport are so massive.

What do we know about the power source for Heathrow and why there wouldn't be adequate backup power if something like this should happen?

STANTON: Yes, so I think that's a very interesting question that'll be asked in the months and, indeed, year to come with the reviews that go on from this. Why is there no redundancy? That's certainly one of the first things I thought.

Why can there be a single failure in the system and yet it causes such catastrophe? That's certainly something I'm sure investigations will explore, but absolutely there needs to be more than one failsafe in a system like this airport. We need redundancy.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, it's no comfort to the thousands of passengers who are stranded now and, as you say, the knock-on effects that could take weeks to unfold here. Tony Stanton in Sydney, I really appreciate having you on. Thank you so much.

STANTON: You're welcome.

BRUNHUBER: Well, Russia and Ukraine are trading heavy fire despite new ceasefire talks expected in the coming days.

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Well, that was the moment Ukrainian drones hit a Russian air base about 650 kilometers from the border on Thursday. Russia's state news agency says at least 10 people were injured and about 30 homes were damaged.

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The video shows a large plume of smoke rising from the base after the strike, Kyiv says the base has been used to launch attacks on Ukraine.

But Russia hit back, striking multiple targets across the border, including Odessa. Officials say the city was targeted by a massive drone attack which caused fires and left three people injured.

The U.S. will try to make more headway next week in its push for a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine. Negotiators will meet in Saudi Arabia after Kyiv and Moscow agreed to stop attacking each other's energy facilities.

As Fred Pleitgen reports, there are hopes that both sides will agree to stop attacks in the Black Sea.

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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Moscow has confirmed that the next round of talks between the Russians and the United States is set to take place in Saudi Arabia this coming Monday. And the Russians are also saying that they have already chosen their negotiators and that they are ready to go, essentially.

However, at the same time, the Russians do seem to be trying to tone down the expectations somewhat. They are calling this next round consultations rather than negotiations, and it's unclear how much headway can actually be achieved.

Now, one of the things that the Russians say is definitely going to be talked about is the so-called Black Sea Initiative. That is essentially trying to stop fighting in the Black Sea area. For the Ukrainians, that would be extremely important because the Ukrainians do use the Black Sea and the ports that they have there to export a lot of their grain, which, of course, is very important for world markets, but also for the Ukrainian economy as well.

And for the Russians, the Black Sea has become very difficult in recent months. At the beginning of their special military operation, as they still call it, they used the Black Sea and the Black Sea fleet to really target Ukrainian cities with missiles that were launched from ships. Now they can't do that to the same extent because the Ukrainians themselves have developed seaborne unmanned vehicles that have destroyed a lot of Russian ships.

Both the U.S. and Russia, though, say that they hope that headway can be achieved. And at the same time, of course, the fighting in Ukraine continues unrelenting.

The Ukrainians are saying that the Russians are still launching drones towards Ukrainian territory dozens in the night from Wednesday to Thursday. And the Russians say that the Ukrainians targeted one of Russia's main air bases called Engels where the Russians have a substantial part of their strategic bomber fleet with several drones as well.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BRUNHUBER: All right, we'll have the latest on the breaking news out of London. One of the busiest airports in the world shut down after a fire and power outage.

You're watching "CNN Newsroom," please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Experts in air travel in Europe and beyond will be disrupted for days to come. London's Heathrow Airport is shut down after a fire triggered a massive power outage.

All right, now you can see it looks like a ghost town. Travelers are being told not to go there but to check in with their airlines about rescheduling their flights. The fire started at an electrical substation just a few kilometers from the airport.

Aviation analyst Jeffrey Thomas says Heathrow handles about a quarter of a million passengers a day. Incoming flights have been turned back or diverted to other airports.

Israel says it has intercepted a rocket fired by Hamas from Gaza. Two others fell in an open area without causing any casualties. The attacks are the first from Hamas since the Gaza ceasefire ended with new Israeli strikes on Tuesday. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 500 people have been killed in Gaza this week alone.

The death toll since the war began is now close to 50,000. The Israeli government has dismissed the head of Shin Bet, its internal security service, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who says he lost trust in Ronan Bar.

All right, joining me now from Tel Aviv is Mairav Zonszein, who's a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. Thanks so much for being here with us.

So let's start with the latest attacks from Hamas. What does it say about their capabilities and how much they've been degraded or not since the start of the war?

MAIRAV ZONSZEIN, SR. ANALYST FOR ISRAEL, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: Well, I think it's clear that they've obviously been heavily degraded as a kind of army. They no longer have the same infrastructure. They've lost many people.

But they are still able to act against Israel in various ways. Certainly when ground troops are in Gaza, there's guerrilla warfare. And they still have some rocket capabilities.

And the last two months of ceasefire, they've been able to reassemble and rebuild. And the IDF itself admits that it has about the same number of militants, something like 25,000, as it did at the beginning of, as many as Israel has claimed to have killed during the year and a half of war. So there really seems to be no military solution to the issue of Hamas in Gaza.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, I want to get to that wider issue in a second, but you mentioned sort of the loss -- Hamas' loss of people. We saw Israel put out another list of Hamas leaders just killed by Israel. So this assassination operation, any indication that it is having any effect, that it's hastening the end of Hamas?

ZONSZEIN: No, I don't think so. I mean, it seems to be -- Israel seems to be targeting now Hamas civil officials, people who help, you know, Hamas run the government in Gaza, keep things kind of functioning.

And, you know, that's part of what its war goals are, is dismantling its military and governing capabilities.

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But, you know, you kill somebody and another person will replace them, and you're not going to be able to disappear everybody. So when we were in the phase of the ceasefire that was supposed to go to negotiations towards the second phase, Hamas was indicating in certain channels that it's not interested in governing Gaza, that it would make room for the Palestinian Authority, and that it was willing to make certain flexibility and concessions. And Israel just never entered those negotiations in any earnest way.

So we don't know whether we could have actually removed Hamas from power in Gaza through diplomacy.

BRUNHUBER: Right. Okay, so let's talk about then Israel's military war goals. They've just resumed the war in Gaza. I mean, that won't bring the hostages home, unless maybe indirectly by putting more pressure on Hamas.

Is there a clear strategic goal for this latest military operation?

ZONSZEIN: I mean, I certainly don't see it, and I don't see why more intense or greater military force will produce a different result. You know, Israel has been at this for quite a long time.

It's bombarded the Strip. It's killed many, many, many people. And it's destroyed Gaza, and it has not destroyed Hamas. So it's unclear how more of this is going to change anything.

Plus, you have much less of a national consensus for this resumption of war. Not just the families of the hostages, but many Israelis see very transparently that this resumption of war is not going to achieve the release of hostages, and is doubtful whether it will defeat Hamas any further.

So you also have reservists who are not showing up for duty, whether because they can't afford it anymore to be away from their businesses and their families. You have many reservists who are injured physically and mentally. You have a shortage, and I just don't see how Israel can keep this up.

I mean, short of fully occupying Gaza, which would require a huge amount of resources and budget, something that all defense officials have said is not a good idea. But if we continue on this track, that seems like where Israel is going to go.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, or just fully destroying Gaza, and that's been another thing that's been proposed, certainly.

You talk about the results of this resumption of attacks in Gaza by Israel. One result has been the return of Itamar Ben-Gvir's right-wing faction to the governing coalition. Now, many observers in Israel predicted Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn't opt for phase two of the deal because basically the longer the war drags on, the greater his chances of remaining in power.

Do you see that as what's happening here?

ZONSZEIN: Yes, I mean, everything that has to do with Netanyahu and his actions are tainted by his corruption and his political survival. He's on trial for corruption. Aides around him are being investigated by the Internal Security Service for, you know, ties with Qatar and its government.

There's just a lot of legal woes around him, and he has a coalition with far-right settlers and ultra-orthodox who know that if they have nowhere else to go, they can't build a different kind of government. So it's a very homogenous and strong coalition, despite the fact that many Israelis are opposed to it.

And he is concerned with his political survival, and the longer that he goes to war, the quieter all the other aspects around him will be. And so it's no coincidence that he chose to go and resume the war in Gaza right as he's about to pass a budget for the year, the end of March that he has to get through.

And as his far-right ministers have threatened that if he doesn't resume the war, they will quit.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there, but really appreciate getting your analysis on all of this. Mairav Zonszein in Tel Aviv, thank you so much.

ZONSZEIN: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: Canada's new Prime Minister is now expected to call a snap election. Sources say Mark Carney will advise the Governor General on Sunday to dissolve Parliament, and if this happens, CNN has told Canadians, we'll likely do the polls in federal elections at the end of next month. Now this comes as the country grapples with the U.S. over trade and tariffs, and as many Canadians are furious with President Trump's repeated calls to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

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For the second consecutive day, protesters in Turkey defied a ban on public gatherings and demonstrated against the government's detention of Istanbul's mayor. Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on people to resist the injustice of his detention as part of a corruption and terrorism investigation. Critics say the mayor's detention is undemocratic and political.

President Erdogan, in his first public comments on the detention, dismissed criticism as theatrics and slogans. The main opposition party says they will nominate the popular mayor as their presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan on Sunday.

All right, we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we'll have the latest on the fire that's caused major power outages shutting down London's Heathrow Airport.

[03:25:05]

Plus, efforts to achieve a partial ceasefire in Ukraine are picking up steam, but you wouldn't believe that if you looked at the situation on the ground. That and more coming up. Please stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber. Let's check today's top stories.

London's Heathrow Airport has been shut down after a fire caused a major power outage. Flames damaged an electrical substation that was powering the airport, dozens of flights have been suspended or canceled around the world. A flight tracking service says more than 1,300 flights could be affected.

Hamas has fired rockets at Israel for the first time since the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire. Israel says one was intercepted and two fell in an open area with no casualties reported. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 500 people have been killed in Gaza since Tuesday.

The Ukrainian official says his country's third largest city was on fire after a massive Russian drone attack on Odessa on Thursday. Social media videos show civilian infrastructure engulfed in flames with huge plumes of smoke towering above the city. Officials say three people were injured.

Now despite the heavy fighting, the U.S. will try to take its push for a ceasefire to the next level on Monday. Russia and Ukraine have agreed to stop attacking each other's energy facilities.

Now U.S. and Russian officials are set to meet in Saudi Arabia to iron out more specific language. They're also said to be hoping to reach an achievement adding attacks on naval assets in the Black Sea. Now the U.S. and Ukraine are expected to hold separate meetings at the same time.

For more analysis, we're joined by John Lough, the head of the foreign policy at the New Eurasian Strategy Center. And he's speaking to us from London. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So let me start with that meeting in Saudi Arabia. Do we know what we're expecting to come out of that? Are the expectations pretty low?

JOHN LOUGH, HEAD OF FOREIGN POLICY, NEW EURASIAN STRATEGIES CENTER: Yes, I think the expectations are pretty low. This is going to be, in my view, a long, slow process to try to achieve some progress and work out a way to simply persuade both the Russians and the Ukrainians that there is a genuine path to peace.

At the moment, both sides see a motivation to fight. It's pretty clear from the telephone call that President Trump had with President Putin earlier this week that the Russians are playing really quite hard to get. And the results of that call were pretty minimal.

So the U.S. negotiators are going to see what they can get from the Russians. But I think the difficulty here is that President Trump is in a hurry and President Putin is not. Putin can carry on fighting for a good while yet.

And the two sides are talking. The Russians are keen to restore relations with the U.S. There are lots of things going on there. But as far as the war is concerned, the Ukrainians are not at the table.

And I think this is the big problem, that there are things being decided over their heads. There are European countries that are also very unhappy about this process and where it is leading.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, you described this as sort of this long process. In a piece, you described Putin as ready to dance a long, slow tango with Trump. So your position basically is Putin is basically stringing Trump along.

And this 30-day ceasefire on energy infrastructure, is that just an example, do you think?

LOUGH: Well, I think it is an example because President Trump was able to persuade President Zelenskyy to sign up to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. In the expectation that the Russians, probably as a gesture of goodwill or something of that kind, would be prepared to do the same.

But what President Trump has discovered is that the Russians have other motivations. They believe that they can win this war.

And I think the real concern in Ukraine is that the Russians are trying to use President Trump to impose on them a Russian-designed peace settlement. Because the Russians are just not interested in simply a ceasefire.

They said this consistently. They want a peace settlement. And the terms of that peace settlement go far beyond Ukraine. They concern NATO, the presence, I believe, of the United States,

military presence of the United States in Europe. And, of course, the ultimate conditions for Ukraine in terms of its future existence.

[03:35:00]

Because the Russians want to make sure that Ukraine doesn't join any military alliances, namely NATO. They want to ensure that when there is a peace agreement that there will be no foreign forces on Ukrainian territory.

And finally, they want to be sure that the Ukrainians are going to, in fact, as they would put it, demilitarize. They want Ukraine to be in a position where it can't properly defend itself.

And then last but not least, apart from the increased territory that they would occupy and incorporate into the Russian Federation, Putin wants to have all four regions, he's indicated four regions. They only partially occupy three of those at the moment.

He wants to have all those incorporated into the Russian Federation. And he would no doubt want to get recognition of the incorporation of Crimea. In addition to that, they would like to bring to power in Ukraine a government that is, in their view, friendly towards Russia.

BRUNHUBER: We have no idea if President Trump would agree to any or all of that. But certainly he has been basically giving Moscow what it wants to this point.

President Trump has staked a lot of his own personal reputation as a dealmaker on ending the war and how easy it would be for him. The speculation is that one of his goals is a Nobel Peace Prize. So how might Putin exploit Trump's motivation, do you think?

LOUGH: Well, I think he's doing it already because he can see that President Trump is in a hurry, that he doesn't care particularly about Ukraine. He doesn't seem to be bothered about effectively withdrawing the U.S. from Europe, seems to think this is actually in the U.S.' strategic interest.

And of course, it's been a long-term goal of Moscow to find a way of forcing the United States out of Europe. And in their view, recreating what they describe as historical Europe.

In other words, a continent over which they exercise decisive influence, where there isn't a superpower involved in the form of the United States. So President Trump so far seems to be playing along with at least a lot of that.

I'm not saying that he's going to leave NATO tomorrow, but he's certainly signaled to the European allies that things have changed. The United States may not necessarily be there for them if, let's say, Russia were to attack. At least that's what they've concluded.

So we are seeing some really important events starting to unfold, which will have long-term historical consequences. BRUNHUBER: Yes, no doubt about that. We'll have to leave it there.

John Lough, thank you so much for being with us.

LOUGH: Thank you.

Nigeria is building what could be the largest food storage facility in Africa. It's a response to the continent's growing food insecurity. World banks, as food shortages have increased 60 percent over the last decade, despite growth in agricultural production.

CNN's Eleni Giokos takes a closer look at the new construction and how it could help the food supply.

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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR, "CONNECTING AFRICA" (voice-over): When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Nigeria, the nation had to face the issue of food insecurity head on.

SOLA IGE, PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT, EPE LOGISTICS HUB: We could see at the time that there was a significant increase in the prices of food. And one of the ideas behind this is the fact that we don't want any Nigerian to go to sleep hungry.

GIOKOS (voice-over): The idea was born to build what could become Africa's largest food logistics hub.

IGE: What we are looking at here is to store a significant amount of food that will last Lagosians for like 90 days, should the crisis and the mold of COVID ever occur again.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Under the Origin Tech Group, construction is well underway to build state-of-the-art facilities for food processing, storage and distribution in Lagos State.

PRINCE S.J. SAMUEL, CHAIRMAN AND CEO, ORIGIN TECH GROUP: This should be a pivotal change for agriculture in Africa. Looking at the food system, you wonder why we still import a lot of things. It's because you don't have a market-led system.

I've not seen a lot of it develop. I believe that this project needs to run across Africa very fast. And we are privileged to be that company who is willing to help pilot that drive.

GIOKOS (voice-over): Once up and running at full capacity, the Origin Tech Group says the logistics hub will have the capacity to store half a billion tons of food and can generate up to $1.6 billion a year in food transactions, creating an impact that will reach far beyond Nigeria.

[03:40:07]

SAMUEL: Our hope is that we see this model moving very, very fast and transforming Africa, reducing carbon emission and, of course, waste.

IGE: We are not thinking local, really. We are thinking at least for the African continent, we can repeat this in several countries and it will be like Africa seems to be the hunger capital of the world and we can start exporting food also to the rest of the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[03:45:10]

BRUNHUBER: Now we're following breaking news out of London. This Heathrow Airport, one of the world's busiest, has completely shut down due to a power outage that's causing severe disruption to global air travel.

Officials say the airport went dark after a transformer at a nearby electrical substation caught fire. Dozens of firefighters and ten fire engines are on the scene in west London. Britain's National Grid says crews are working at speed to restore power.

So far, we have no word on the cause of the blaze. The airport will stay closed until at least 11:59 p.m. on Friday night, London time. Thousands of flights are expected to be affected in the coming days.

Now earlier, I spoke with aviation analyst Geoffrey Thomas. I asked him just how much chaos the shutdown could cause and for how long. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEOFFREY THOMAS, AVIATION ANALYST: Most of the flights that are going to Europe right now are full. So the issue then becomes not only have you got disruption of flights in the wrong place, tomorrow's flight or today's flight, I should say, will be canceled because Heathrow is closed. So those passengers who suffer a cancellation, they won't be going the next day.

They'll be going on the next available flight that has a seat available. That's the way it works. So, you know, they could find themselves being bumped four or five or six days before there's a spare seat for them to travel to their intended destination.

So the dislocation is huge. The disruption, the domino effect of this is massive. And what I find extraordinary, Kim, is how come Heathrow hasn't got a plan B or a plan C for a power outage like this?

BRUNHUBER: Yes, let's talk about that. I mean, the power requirements to run an airport are clearly massive. So what do we know about the power source and that very crucial question that you posed there? Why wouldn't there be a backup power source?

THOMAS: Well, I'm not an electric engineer. That's the first thing I should say.

But I would have thought that a piece of infrastructure that's that important to the economy of the United Kingdom, the largest airport in the United Kingdom, the second largest international airport in the world, should be drawing power from an alternative grid source, not just one grid source. And why hasn't it got its own generators? I mean, every hospital in the Western world has got backup generators.

You can't be doing an operation and suddenly the power fails. You've got to have an immediate backup situation.

All the media outlets around the world, they've all got backup power options to them. All critical infrastructure or most critical infrastructure has backup power options.

Sure, Heathrow is a massive place. It's got five terminals. It's got a number of hotels.

Its power draw would be very significant. That's all the more reason why it shouldn't have a robust plan B.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And we're joined now by Molly Zhang. She's a student who was waiting to fly from Boston to London Heathrow, but was stuck on the tarmac at the U.S. airport for three hours.

And she joins me now on the phone. Molly, thanks so much for being here with us. Sorry you were embroiled in all of this chaos.

How did you find out about what was going on?

MOLLY ZHANG, HEATHROW FLIGHT CANCELED, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS (on the phone): Oh, Yes. So back that time, I was just like waiting at the (inaudible), waiting at the airplane. And after we were boarding, they announced that we have to wait due to the issues at Heathrow.

And at first, they only told us to wait for an hour. But later it turns to be waiting for almost three hours.

BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh. And we're showing some of the video that you took on the plane as the people were looking on their phones and checking to see what the heck was going on. Was there a lot of confusion and anger while people were waiting?

ZHANG (on the phone): Yes, concerns like we are in (inaudible) right now, we are in America right now. So, due to the time, everyone is exhausted and really stressful.

BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh. So where exactly are you right now?

ZHANG (on the phone): I'm in Boston, like some hotel nearby the airport. The British Airways, they arranged most of us to one hotel. But due to the -- like the time we have to waiting for check-in, I have been waiting for another long time.

[03:50:09]

BRUNHUBER: And have they told you when you might actually be able to fly to London? Because right now, I mean, the fire is still ongoing. They don't know right now when power will be restored. ZHANG (on the phone): Yes, so all they tell us is just waiting at the

hotel and checking the email. And hopefully, for the best, we can take off like for tomorrow afternoon. But that's just I hope so.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, gosh, it must be so frustrating not knowing when you'll be able to fly. What were you planning to do in London? Were you going on from there or was that your destination? And what were you planning to do there?

ZHANG (on the phone): Yes, I was supposed to visit my friend and have like a whole bunch of spring break travel plan. But now everything is just in this trip.

BRUNHUBER: Oh, my gosh. Well, you know, so many people around the world are unfortunately sharing your pain. And hopefully, you'll be able to get where you need to go as soon as possible. But certainly, it doesn't look like it will be anytime soon.

Hang in there. Molly Zhang, thank you so much.

ZHANG (on the phone): Yes, thank you.

BRUNHUBER: All right, this is "CNN Newsroom." We'll be right back with more, stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: We have more on the breaking news from London. A fire near Heathrow Airport has disrupted air travel around the world. The flames burned an electrical substation causing the airport to lose power. The website Flightradar24 says more than 1,300 flights could be affected.

Its director told CNN it could take days or even weeks for some airlines to return to normal. Now Heathrow is one of the world's busiest airports. It's expected to remain closed at least through Friday.

For the first time in its 130-year history, the International Olympic Committee will be led by a woman. Kirsty Coventry was elected president on Thursday, beating out six other contenders for the most powerful position in world sport. CNN's Don Riddell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: It really was an historic day on Thursday for the International Olympic Committee. The IOC elected its first female and its first African president, the former Zimbabwean swimming champion Kirsty Coventry.

[03:55:00]

On Thursday in Greece, Coventry surprised many Olympic observers by claiming a majority of votes in the first round of the election. And at the age of just 41, she'll also become the youngest president in the IOC's 130-year history. KIRSTY COVENTRY, IOC PRESIDENT-ELECT: It's a really powerful signal.

It's a signal that we're truly global and that we have evolved into an organization that is truly open to diversity and we're going to continue walking that road in the next eight years.

The IOC and the Olympic movement have lasted so many generations because it brings people together and the diversity is a unifying way for us to connect with each other. So right now in today's world, this is our biggest platform to showcase the good of humanity and to share our values as the Olympic movement.

RIDDELL: Kirsty Coventry has made history in so many ways. She's also the most decorated of the 10 IOC presidents. She won seven Olympic medals and was twice the 200-meter backstroke champion, taking gold in Athens and Beijing.

Coventry will be in office for at least eight years. Her first games will be the Winter Games in Milan in February and then of course the big one, the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, a time in which she will have to work with President Donald Trump, some of whose policies could impact the games.

But it does feel like the dawn of a new era for the IOC. For so long they've been accused of being out of touch and rather spineless when it comes to dealing with the challenging issues of the day, but this does feel like a new, young, fresh era for the IOC. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: March Madness lived up to its name on day one of the U.S. men's college basketball tournament. Among the key games, McNeese State pulling off an upset against Clemson. Watch this.

Brandon Murray led the Cowboys with 21 points, including this monster slam in the first half. The Tigers tried to mount a comeback late in the game and they almost pulled it off, but the deficit was just too big. The Cowboys held on to advance the second round for the first time.

Meanwhile, Auburn University showed everyone why they're a top-seeded team. After a competitive first half against Alabama State, Auburn collected themselves in second. Led by Myles Kelly with 7 three- pointers, Auburn pulled away in crews to an easy 83-63 victory.

Alright, thanks so much for joining me. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

More breaking news coverage of the shutdown at London's Heathrow Airport with Isabel Rosales right after this break. Please do stay with us.

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