London Luton Airport suspends flights after car park inferno

Britain’s London Luton Airport suspended all flights until 1400 GMT on Wednesday (Oct 11) after a car fire triggered a wider blaze that led to a partial collapse of one of its multi-storey car parks.

There were no known fatalities in the fire, which was first reported to emergency services late on Tuesday evening. Pictures of the scene showed huge flames sweeping through the structure located a short distance from the airport terminal.

“Our priority remains supporting the emergency services and the safety of our passengers and staff. Therefore, we have now taken the decision to suspend all flights until 3pm on Wednesday,” the airport said in a post on X.

The suspension had previously been set to run until 1100 GMT.

The local fire department said up to 1,200 cars could have been in the car park at the time, and that as of 0600 GMT emergency crews were expected to remain on the scene for a number of hours.

“One half of the structure was fully involved in fire and the building suffered a significant structural collapse,” the fire department added, while declaring this as a major incident.

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A full investigation would be undertaken to determine the cause of the fire, they said.

The ambulance service said four firefighters and a member of airport staff had been taken to hospital.

Luton is Britain’s fifth busiest airport after Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester, and it handled 13.3 million passengers in 2022, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

Britain’s easyJet, whose flights operate from Luton airport, said “airlines are currently experiencing some disruption to their flying programmes.”

Ryanair and Wizz Air said affected passengers would be contacted as soon as possible. REUTERS