Climate change activists disrupted flights at Heathrow Airport by cutting through a fence and chaining themselves together on a runway today in protest against a possible third runway at UK’s busiest airport.
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“The southern runway remains open”, a statement from the airport said.
“That is why we will carefully examine all of the evidence provided by the Airports Commission, including environmental mitigation measures, and we will work closely with industry and communities on how best to mitigate the impact of noise when considering the options for expansion”. Both runways remain open, and the police are at the site.
The runway was closed for almost three hours and 13 flights were cancelled.
Activists chained themselves to gates and displayed banners on the tarmac.
“We want to say sorry to anyone whose day we’ve ruined, and we’re not saying that everybody who wants to fly is a bad person”.
We’re still a long way away from the “Third Runway” question being resolved, let alone built, so it will be interesting to see if Plane Stupid keeps up its campaign. Another activist told Reuters that no guards were around when they cut through the fence.
On July 1, a report recommended a new runway should be built at Heathrow rather than Gatwick.
“We thought we’d won this fight, because David Cameron said “no ifs, no buts” there would be no runway at Heathrow”, Shoraka told the Guardian. And we mean it’.
Speaking to Breitbart London a spokesman for “Plane Stupid” confirmed they will “most certainly” do it again, adding “without a shadow of doubt we will continue to use direct action to portray our message”.
Heathrow is urging people traveling to check with the airlines before departure, even though the protest is over.
A BA flight leaves Heathrow airport on January 21, 2013 in London, England.
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Heathrow warns there “may be delays and cancellations” but there doesn’t look to be too much disruption to its usual activity.
