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Climate Change Extremists Are Plotting A Drone Attack To Shut Down Heathrow Airport

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Mail on Sunday

Climate change extremists are plotting to shut down Heathrow Airport with drones, threatening chaos for more than a million travellers.

The action, being organised by a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion supporters, is scheduled to start on Friday, September 13 and last for a week – but activists warn that it could go on for even longer.

With about 219,000 passengers using Heathrow on an average day, more than 1.5 million people could be affected.

Final planning documents, seen exclusively by The Mail on Sunday, show that the protesters will fly toy drones at head height over the airfield to stop aircraft landing or taking off.

The action, being organised by a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion supporters, is scheduled to start on Friday, September 13 and last for a week ¿ but activists warn that it could go on for even longer [File photo]
The action, being organised by a splinter group of Extinction Rebellion supporters, is scheduled to start on Friday, September 13 and last for a week – but activists warn that it could go on for even longer.

The group claim ‘the airport’s authorities will respond by grounding all flights’.

The plan is for drones to be launched each day at 3am to get ahead of the majority of scheduled flights. 

In a statement explaining the drone attack, named Heathrow Pause, the eco-activists boast of ¿exploiting a loophole in Heathrow Airport¿s health-and-safety protocols¿ to ¿fly toy drones within its restricted zone¿. Heathrow Airport is pictured above [File photo]

A makeshift map of Heathrow airspace is included in the dossier, showing flight paths.

In a statement explaining the drone attack, named Heathrow Pause, the eco-activists boast of ‘exploiting a loophole in Heathrow Airport’s health-and-safety protocols’ to ‘fly toy drones within its restricted zone’.

The organisers include Left-wing academic Roger Hallam, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, who helped plan the two weeks of chaos organised in London by the protest group in April. 

Flying a drone within 3.1 miles of an airport carries a jail sentence of up to five years. 

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: ‘We are aware of reports of a protest planned at Heathrow. Anyone caught illegally using a drone within the proximity of an airport can expect to be dealt with in line with the law.’

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