The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Roger Hallam, joined a plot to “paralyse” London’s Heathrow airport by flying dozens of drones near the runway, a jury has been told.
Roger Hallam, 57, went on trial at Isleworth Crown Court on Monday along with Larch Maxey, 51, and Valerie Milner-Brown, 71.
All three deny conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, while a fourth person, Michael Lynch-White, has pleaded guilty.
Prosecutor James Curtis, KC, said Mr. Hallam and his co-defendants intended to “embarrass” the government into abandoning its plans for a third runway at Heathrow.
He said the plan was for the September 2019 protest, which was dubbed Heathrow Pause, to go viral and shut down the airport while also leading to lots of publicity.
The jury was told Hallam told police during an interview he had wanted to, “close Heathrow for the foreseeable future.”
Jury Told the Case Is Not About ‘Saving the Planet’
Mr. Curtis told the jury the plotters may have had the “most laudable aims—to save the planet from imminent destruction.”But he said: “This case is not about the merits of the various measures which are desired to save the planet nor is it about the beliefs of the people who want to achieve those ends.”
“This case is about the closure of Heathrow airport in the short term or, as they contemplated, in the long term, closing it down to world traffic,” he added.
He said the operators of the airport were aware of the “risk of potential catastrophe” if drones were flown near to planes’ flight paths and he said, “As operators concerned primarily with safety, they would have to scramble their ultimate safety measure (closure of the airport).”
The prosecutor said: “There is a terrible danger for aircraft being struck or nearly struck by flying objects. It would be a risk that the operators would not be able to afford to take with human beings or vital cargo on board and with homes nearby on the ground beneath.”
Mr. Curtis said the plotters’ “stated aim, made in note after note, public pronouncement after public pronouncement, was to paralyse the major transport hub of Great Britain, which is also the busiest in Europe.”
He said they wanted to close the airport, “not just for an hour or so but a week, two weeks” or “an indistinct period.”
Little Experience of Flying Drones
He said the plot was dangerous because most of them had little or no experience of flying drones or of the world of aviation.The prosecutor said the activists claimed they had taken stringent safety measures to avoid accidents was “pie in the sky.”
The court heard the activists met police before the protest to discuss their plans to fly toy drones in the Heathrow exclusion zone.
But Mr. Curtis said the plotters ignored the “misery and inconvenience” to passengers, which could have included people visiting dying relatives or the transport of vital medical cargo.
He said they also ignored “the vast economic damage” to the airport and to those who were travelling because they were on a “mission of ideals.”
The trial continues.
Earlier this month, Gail Bradbrook, who co-founded Extinction Rebellion with Mr. Hallam, was convicted of criminal damage for breaking the window of a government building in a protest against HS2.
