The Just Stop Oil eco zealots who temporarily blocked Gatwick Airport departures this morning by sitting on the floor have been arrested after forcing furious families with children to amble over them in order to make their flights.
At around 8am, seven protesters wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts and carrying placards in their trademark orange, entered the Southern terminal and tried to obstruct the departure gates by erecting a wall of suitcases.
But, their protest was rather embarrassingly thwarted when passengers realised there was nothing to stop them simply walking over the clumsily assembled blockade.
If it was disruption they were after, sadly for Just Stop Oil it didn’t work. Gatwick confirmed that the airport was open and flights were operating as usual on Monday morning and that the protesters had been removed and arrested.
In scenes not too dissimilar from a game of Twister, families laden with heavy bags clutched their children’s hands as they clambered over the blockade leaving the eco-loons fuming on the floor.
The group’s latest stunt, which is part of their plan to cause a ‘summer of chaos’ at UK airports, fell on the first day of the summer holidays when departure gates were at their busiest with hordes of young families jetting off on breaks.
Ever the showmen, the group had announced their stunt on social media, proudly crowing ‘BREAKING: GATWICK DEPARTURE GATES BLOCKED’ however many users mocked the stunt branding it ‘pathetic’ and a ‘complete waste of time’.
At around 8am, seven of the activists entered the Southern terminal at Gatwick
Just Stop Oil ‘s eco-clowns have blocked Gatwick Airport departures today
Activists from Just Stop Oil Sat and blocked the departures gate at Gatwick Airport
JSO targeted the South Terminal in the latest in their ongoing campaign of disruption
‘Not really blocked if people are stepping over them,’ one wrote, with another branding it ‘pathetic’.
A third added: ‘Despicable, kids and families going on holiday.’
A fourth said: ‘Stopping ordinary people having a well deserved holiday or going to visit family isn’t the win you think it is you privileged bunch of zealots.’
In central London, environmental protesters have caused criminal damage and blocked access to an office building on Old Queen Street in Westminster, the Metropolitan Police said.
One person has been arrested for criminal damage, and the incident is ongoing.
JSO said it is working with groups internationally to demand governments establish a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.
The chaos began last Wednesday, when militant activists forced planes to remain grounded in Germany.
They vowed to use ‘all means necessary’ to target millions of families planning well-earned getaways across the continent.
The protesters can be seen wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts with their hands in orange coloured boxes.
An airport spokesman said: ‘London Gatwick is open and operating normally today. There are a small number of protesters at the airport who have now been arrested and are being removed from the airport.’
Earlier this month, Gatwick became the latest major airport to secure a High Court injunction in an attempt to stop would-be environmental activists trespassing on its land after receiving police intelligence over protest plans.
Timothy Morshead KC, representing Gatwick at the hearing, said such action could cause ‘severe disruption and financial loss’ and ‘significant delays for passengers’.
The ‘Oil Kills international uprising’ has been causing havoc at airports around the world.
As part of the disruptive campaign, 21 groups across 12 countries have taken action at 17 airports so far.
Along with JSO, other groups include Letzte Generation Germany, Folk Mot Fossilmakta and Scientist Rebellion in Norway, XR Finland, Futuro Vegetal in Spain, Drop Fossil Subsidies and Act Now – Liberate in Switzerland, Letzte Generation Austria, Extinction Rebellion and Scientists Rebellion in Sweden.
The activists have been bashed on social media, with some branding it ‘pathetic’
The ‘Oil Kills international uprising’ has been causing havoc at airports around the world
Shortly after 8am, activists from Just Stop Oil Sat and blocked the departures gate
Earlier this morning, it was reported that 92 civil society organisations have warned Home Secretary Yvette Cooper against the ‘steady erosion of the right to protest’.
An open letter called for her to reverse the previous government’s crackdown on peaceful protests – prompted in part by the jailing of five JSO members for a total of 21 years.
It comes after 10 Just Stop Oil activists appeared in court charged with conspiring to disrupt Heathrow Airport on Wednesday.
The activists were arrested as part of ‘an intelligence-led policing operation at airports across Europe’.
All 10 were arrested either at Heathrow Airport or in the vicinity and were charged this afternoon with conspiracy to interfere with key national infrastructure under Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2003.
They appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court where eight were remanded in custody.
While the disruption was minimal at Heathrow, eleven activists in Switzerland have blocked main roads around both Zurich and Geneva airport.
Shocking scenes in Rome saw people throwing orange paint in Terminal 3, while the departure time of a plane at the airport was delayed due to activist disruption.
Five eco activists in Spain accessed the taxiway at Barcelona airport but were intercepted before they could take action.
Long queues gathered at the departures gate because of the obstruction
JSO says it is working with groups internationally to demand a fossil fuel treaty
The scene at Gatwick shortly after 8am this morning after JSO revealed a plot to disrupt holidaymakers at UK airports
A German climate activist group that caused flight cancellations at Cologne-Bonn airport by gluing themselves to the runway said similar disruptions to push for an end to fossil fuels were planned over the next few weeks globally.
‘That was just the beginning today. Over the next few weeks we will repeat this in Germany, Europe and globally,’ a member of the Last Generation activist group said in a media briefing.
Officers at Heathrow swooped in before the activists gained any unauthorised entry to the airport or the airfield, it is understood, saving passengers travelling on their summer holidays from facing disruption.
One of those taking action this morning is Mel Carrington, 63, a mother and former environmental consultant from Dorset, who said: ‘We’ve just had the hottest three days on earth in recorded history and possibly for hundreds of thousands of years.
‘Innocent people around the world already face extreme weather and deadly heat and no one is prepared for the societal collapse that unchecked global heating will bring.
‘I’m terrified of what it will mean for my family and friends when there are widespread crop failures, food shortages and economic meltdowns. It will mean the breakdown of law and order, the end of the NHS and the loss of everything we depend on.’
Families laden with heavy bags tried to clamber past to catch their flights this monring
The queue after Just Stop Oil blocked the departures gateway of Gatwick Airport
JSO vowed to use ‘all means necessary’ to target millions of families planning well-earned getaways across the continent. Pictured are the scenes at Gatwick this morning
Also taking action is Greg Sculthorpe a mathematician from Doncaster, who said: ‘I can’t bear to stand back and watch millions dying because the rich and powerful prefer to protect their wealth and status, than the lives of ordinary people.’
‘Ordinary people have no choice but to fight to defend our families, as we pass every safe threshold that risks triggering irreversible feedback loops, leading us towards a hothouse earth where millions are displaced.
‘We need an emergency fossil fuel treaty to phase down fossil fuels by 2030.’
Today’s chaos follows activists jailed for disrupting thousands of hardworking people by scaling the M25 gantry speaking of the ‘injustice of what has been done to us’.
In a joint statement, Cressida Gethin, 22, and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, bemoaned their loss of freedom and explained how they now join hundreds of women who have been ‘abjectly failed’ by society.
Speaking from her jail cell, Cressida said her fellow inmates understood the ‘injustice’ of what has been done, perhaps more so than ‘most people on the street’.
An activist from Just Stop Oil occupied a gantry over the M25 near Godstone in 2022
The stunt disrupted London’s M25 motorway for four days in 2022, causing 50,000 hours of delays for over 700,000 vehicles, including those attending funerals and hospital appointments.
The pair believe their sentences reflect a ‘brokenness’ in the ‘way the country functions’.
The climate activists, who were sentenced to four years for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance on July 18, are currently being held at HMP Bronzefield.
But despite their circumstances, they said they were ‘determined to find joy’ and had been ‘waltzing round our cell to music playing on our little plastic television’.
Social media users labelled the joint statement published on the Just Stop Oil ‘X’ page as ‘out of touch’ and ‘entitled’.
