London City Airport travelers were met with delays Tuesday as flights were temporarily stopped because of a Black Lives Matter protest.
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British supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement stormed the runway of London City Airport Tuesday, forcing a halt to flights in one of the boldest acts of protest by the group as it spreads beyond US borders.
Natalie Fiennes, 25 and Ben Tippet, 24, both from Thurleigh Road, Battersea, were charged with aggravated trespass and being unlawfully airside within a restricted area of a plane, Metropolitan Police said.
Flights were disrupted for around six hours while members of the campaign group erected a tripod and “locked themselves” onto the runway.
Over 120 flights were either cancelled, delayed or diverted due to the protests.
A statement released by Black Lives Matter UK after the protest said that its activists carried out the demonstration “in order to highlight the UK’s environmental impact on the lives of black people”.
“People need to understand that the effects of climate change are most felt by the people least responsible for them”.
The groups of activists added that the already planned expansion of the London City Airport “will produce in the local community of the London Borough of Newham even more damage to the environment”.
“Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis”, the statement said.
The Black Lives Matter U.K. group came to prominence last month when they staged a series of roadblocks, including outside Heathrow Airport, the country’s busiest hub.
Its sole runway is surrounded by water, but it was reported that the protesters were able to either swim or use a dinghy to cross the wharf, raising questions about security.
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The airport serves to deliver short-haul flights throughout Europe in addition to a daily all-business class flight to NY. “As the largest per capita contributor to global temperature change, and yet among the least vulnerable to its deadly effects, the United Kingdom leads in ensuring that our climate crisis is a racist crisis”. Protests were also held in Nottingham and Birmingham.
