- Title: Climate protester lies on plane in disruption at London City airport
- Date: 10th October 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (OCTOBER 10, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PLANE TAKING OFF AT AIRPORT PLANE LANDING AT AIRPORT SIGN READING (English): "CITY AIRPORT" / HANDCUFFED ACTIVIST ON GROUND HANDCUFFS ON ACTIVIST ACTIVISTS GLUED TO BIKES BLOCKING ROADS OUTSIDE LONDON CITY AIRPORT ACTIVISTS GLUED TO BIKES LYING ON GROUND IN FRONT OF VEHICLES ACTIVISTS LYING ON GROUND NEAR BIKES POLICE OFFICERS DRAGGING ACTIVIST AWAY ACTIVISTS AND BIKES ON GROUND IN MIDDLE OF ROAD CHILD LOOKING AT ACTIVISTS POLICE OFFICERS STANDING IN LINE SIGN READING (English): "PRIVATE JET CENTRE" / ACTIVISTS LYING ON GROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVIST AND ELECTRICIAN, 34, LIAM NORTON, SAYING: "Look I can't speak again about specifics, about anything but all I will say is that disruption is now necessary and the only way you understand disruption is if you understand the context of the climate crisis and what that climate crisis is going to mean for the citizens of this country. And what it's going to mean is that once the climate systems collapse, which they're already really on the verge of collapsing, there's only about 20 percent of the Arctic sea ice left during the summer - once that disappears we don't really know what the repercussions of that are. And what basically the climate crisis means is that we're not going to be able to grow food and when you can't grow food that equals social collapse and when social collapse happens because people are stabbing each other over a tin of beans the other thing that you get is civil war, starvation, suffering on a scale that it's difficult to comprehend. People aren't really aware of what the truth of that is and this disruption is necessary in the context of what the climate crisis means with regards to social collapse." VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC ON BRIDGE CYCLIST WARNING SIGN ON BACK OF VAN / ACTIVISTS ON GROUND IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF POLICE OFFICER TAKING GLUE OFF ACTIVISTS' HAND VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WEARING HIGH-VIZ JACKETS AND MOUSTACHES PRETENDING TO DIRECT AIR TRAFFIC PROTESTERS GATHERED OUTSIDE AIRPORT / EXTINCTION REBELLION FLAG VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING (English): "EXTINCTION REBELLION" SIGN ON PROTESTER'S RUCKSACK READING (English): "REBEL FOR LIFE" VARIOUS OF PROTESTER VISHAL OUTSIDE AIRPORT (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER AND DOCTOR, VISHAL SAYING: "I'm here because in the face of climate and ecological breakdown there are huge health consequences. Airports like this are expanding and the pollution they're causing is killing people now and also will kill people in the future and it's my duty as a doctor to try and stop that harm from taking place." (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROTESTER, ANNIE, SAYING: "I'm here because we desperately need to make a stand, that flying everywhere is... we're on a tipping point and this doesn't help. There's all the nasty stuff, the trails in the sky, it's not helping. So I'm doing it for my children, my grandchildren, for your children. I'll probably die, hopefully of a natural cause, I'm in my 60s, maybe get cancer or something but I won't die of starvation. I won't die of lack of water and I think that's what's going to happen." PROTESTERS CHANTING VARIOUS OF WOMAN WITH PLACARD READING (English): "CEOS AGAINST CO2" CHILD STANDING NEXT TO PLACARD READING (English): "I WANT A FUTURE FOR MY CHILDREN" CHILD HOLDING PLACARD READING (English): "PLANETS DON'T GROW ON TREES
- Embargoed: 24th October 2019 15:25
- Keywords: Extinction Rebellion protests climate change London airport protest City airport
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- City: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA003B0INIO7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:A protester lay on top of a plane while another forced a jet to turn around on the runway as climate change activists descended on London City Airport on Thursday (October 10), causing some disruption but ultimately failing to cancel flights.
Protest organizers Extinction Rebellion had vowed to occupy the airport's terminal and shut down operations for three days as part of its action in the British capital.
London City is the capital's fifth-biggest - and most central - airport, popular with business travellers, bankers and politicians for short-haul and regional routes.
A Reuters photographer saw one man, former paralympian cyclist James Brown, lay himself across the top of the body of a British Airways Embraer 190 jet.
"I managed to get on the roof," Brown said in a video he posted online. "This is all about the climate and ecological crisis. We're protesting against government inaction."
He was eventually removed. A spokeswoman for BA said "we are investigating what happened as a matter of urgency."
The group said they were protesting plans to expand the airport, which aims to have 6.5 million passengers a year by 2022 compared to the 4.8 million in 2018, and which has said there could be demand for as many as 11 million by 2035.
On Thursday, 18,000 passengers were due to arrive or depart from the airport, with 286 flights scheduled. While some protesters got inside the terminal building, flights were continuing, though some were delayed.
An Aer Lingus plane was forced to stop taxiing and return to its gate when a passenger got up to give a speech about climate change.
"I'm extremely sorry to disturb everybody here. We have two generations of human civilisation left if we carry on doing what we're doing," the unnamed man said in a video of the incident, as he politely declined efforts by staff and passengers to get him to sit down.
Aer Lingus said that a passenger was removed from the flight to Dublin due to "disruptive behaviour on board."
Extra security measures at the airport meant that most of the protesting happened well away from the runway.
Protesters glued themselves to the terminal building, occupied a nearby Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station and blocked roads around the airport.
Police have made hundreds of arrests so far this week as the protesters have sought to shut down London with two weeks of civil disobedience.
"We continue to work closely with the Metropolitan Police to ensure the safe operation of the airport, which remains fully open and operational," a spokesman for London City Airport said.
Police said that they had arrested one person on a flight on the runway with a number of people arrested outside the airport, without specifying how many.
The airport said it is "committed to building a more sustainable future for the airport and the aviation industry" and has said it will achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. British Airways owner IAG also pledged on Thursday to meet that emissions target.
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