Climate change activists failed to disrupt flights out of Heathrow when technical difficulties foiled their plan to fly drones close to the airport and prevent planes from using the runways.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/D. Leal-Olivas
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In an early-morning livestream on Friday the climate activist group Heathrow Pause reported that a jamming signal was keeping their drones on the ground.
"We've got a little technical glitch. The drone isn't flying," an unidentified person said in the video.
Heathrow remained "open and fully operational" on Friday morning, according to a tweet from the airport.
London’s Metropolitan Police arrested two men inside Heathrow early Friday morning "on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance in relation to operations" at the airport. The police had enacted a 48-hour dispersal order to prevent criminal activity in the area.
Despite a series of preemptive raids by police, the activists had said they would still try to shut down London's main airport,
The climate group said its aim was to pressure the UK government into reducing the country's CO2 emissions.
Police arrested three men and two women on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to commit public nuisance. Two of the group members were being interviewed by German newsmagazine Der Spiegel shortly before the arrest at a cafe in north London.
Symbolic action
Under Heathrow's own rules, the airport must close if drones are spotted within a 5-kilometer (3-mile) exclusion zone.
Members of Heathrow Pause, an offshoot of the Extinction Rebellion activist movement, said they did not plan to operate drones while aircraft were in the air, but instead were aiming for a symbolic action.
Environmental activists in London and other cities have said they are ready to shift from disruption to dialogue. A look back at a week of loud and creative protests that brought parts of the UK capital to a standstill.
Image: Reuters/S. Dawson
Save Mother Earth!
Beginning April 15, protesters with Extinction Rebellion took to the streets of London and other cities to demand governments declare a climate and ecological emergency. They occupied key spots in the city, calling on those in charge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and set up citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice.
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Creative protests
Extinction Rebellion, founded last year by academics in the United Kingdom, is one of the world's fastest-growing environmental movements. Their aim is to protest climate change inaction in a creative and nonviolent way. Demonstrators say people are causing their own mass extinction, which is the basis of their "rebellion."
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Royal support?
Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex, didn't exactly take part in the sit-in on London's Waterloo Bridge on April 18. The royals are expecting and protesters used the happy event in their demonstration, having the couple "thank" Extinction Rebellion for saving their child's future.
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Stuck to the train
Activists have used a variety of unusual protest methods to draw maximum attention and get their point across. Throughout the week, they've blocked traffic, climbed atop buses and superglued themselves to buildings and, in the case of this young man at London's Canary Wharf station on April 17, trains.
Image: Reuters/H. Nicholls
Civil disobedience
The goal of the protests is to temporarily disrupt everyday life. As a result, police have arrested more than 800 people in London alone. Activists want to get the public on their side, but a YouGov survey showed that just 36% of more than 3,500 British polled support the protest, with 52% against.
Image: Reuters/H. Nicholls
Naked truth
Extinction Rebellion protesters first attracted global attention on April 1, during yet another heated Brexit debate in the British Parliament. A group of semi-naked activists revealed themselves in the visitor gallery with slogans including "SOS" and "Stop Wasting Time" written on their bodies, with some gluing their hands to a glass barrier. The scene was quickly broken up my security.
Image: Reuters/EXTINCTION REBELLION
Global movement
The Extinction Rebellion protests got their start in London, but the movement has also spread to other major cities around the world. On April 15, these activists on the Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin blocked traffic for hours.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Soeder
Switching tactics?
On April 21, organizers in London said they were willing to switch tactics and talk with the government. "We're giving them an opportunity now to come and speak to us," said spokesman James Fox. "If they refuse … then this is going to continue and this going to escalate in different, diverse and very creative ways."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/NurPhoto/R. Pope
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Earlier in the week, police said they were confident there would be no repeat of the chaos seen last December at Gatwick Airport, which also serves the UK capital. However, they also warned that any attempted disruption of the airport was a serious crime.
Extinction Rebellion shut down parts of London for more than a week in April in a series of actions that included the blockage of several major roads and businesses. At the time, the group said it planned to carry out an action to shut down Heathrow Airport.
