Climate activists in the United Kingdom were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after targeting Taylor Swift’s jet and vandalizing other aircraft with orange paint on Thursday.
The two protesters, identified as Jennifer Kowalski, 28, and Cole Macdonald, 22, are part of a U.K. environmental group called Just Stop Oil. According to a post on X, the pair targeted Stansted Airport hours after Swift’s jet had landed. Their stated motive was to highlight the need for an “emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.”
According to AP, Swift’s jet was not on the airfield at the time of the incident, but the protesters managed to damage two other aircraft using fire extinguishers filled with orange paint. The demonstration temporarily halted runway operations, but no flights were disrupted.
Swift’s carbon footprint has come under fire from climate activists as the pop star has embarked on an 18-month tour consisting of 152 shows spanning five continents. The criticism has been amplified by private jet tracking technology such as @SwiftJetNextDay on X, which tracks private flight information including fuel burn, cost and emissions.
Following Thursday’s incident, Just Stop Oil released a statement writing, “Until world leaders act to protect us, Just Stop Oil supporters, working with other groups internationally, will take the proportional action necessary to generate much needed political pressure. This summer, areas of key importance to the fossil fuel economy will be declared sites of civil resistance around the world.”
More of Trotsky’s useful idiots. Each of these dimwits believes they will one day be enshrined as hero’s like early civil rights leaders. Unbelievably misguided.
Additionally, these useful idiots do not remember that the instigators of “revolution” are the first to be disappeared after the revolution takes place.
Even Yuri Bezmenov warns them.
Aren’t these the same clueless lunatics that vandalized the Stonehenge monument to “stop oil”?
I would use stronger terms for them, but this being a moderated site and all, I cannot.
So where’s the airport security? Can anyone packing large “fire extinguishers” just stroll onto the tarmac without being questioned? Looks like the airport management needs managing as well as fencing and security cameras.
They cut the chain-link fence with an electric cutoff saw.
And even that did not alert security?
Geez, it wasn’t a military base. How many private airports have somebody patrolling the fence line.
Stansted is a private airport?
Correction, civilian
That’s great, the activist are attacking their prize ‘Virtue Signalers’ first.
Miss Swift, tell the oil activist you’re replacing the jet with an electric bus and a really big sailboat.
Throw the “useful idiots” in jail for 20-30 years, that might make them think twice about damaging aircraft or historical treasures.
I agree. 25-30 years for vandalizing aircraft would be appropriate. What if the nicked brake lines, etc?
“… end fossil fuels by 2030.” I wonder how they GOT to the scene of the vandalism? Did they ride their bikes or ride a horse? I’d wager not? Another way to get these people’s attention would be to vandalize THEIR property in the very same way … an eye for an eye. OR … maybe dip them into a vat of the same stuff. (I can dream can’t I?)
This is what happens when you implement DEI. The cream rises to the top and cannibalism will follow.
…And now their idea of courage and manhood is to get together with a bunch of punk friends and ride around here taking advantage of folks who are too good nature and put a stop to it.
Second Hand Lions quote?
Yea, it seemed to apply to this real life band of miscreants. Eventually some good person will need put a stop to their mindless destruction.
I detect a serious mental pathology in someone who repeatedly injects the same irrelevancy in every online observation. Please quit annoying us with your “DEI” crap.
Why is it all these people look the same?
Ha! right? It’s the uniform…
Comes from wearing old T-shirts, no haircut, not bathing and lots of anti-microbial patchouli oil.
Nylon silkspan pants, rubber boots with nylon uppers, Rubber hose on the fire extinguisher, posted on social media with an iphone ……and they want to BAN Oil. right. idiots one and all.
Great comment!
That’s expensive damage to those aircraft and keeps them out of service. There’s no way they should not be held accountable in some way for full cost, plus some slammer time. Brain dead idiots.
These climate retread brain’s should be donated to science for research. There has to be some kind of genetic abnormality that has yet to be discovered.
Well,at least they didn’t cause bodily harm to anyone. My guess is that this group feels pretty frightened about the “state of the world” in general, and specifically the increased incidents of weather conditions that exceed the typical (at least to this point in the last 100 or so years). And feel powerless to protect themselves. So they take matters to an extreme. Protest is not exactly new or pretty, and has occurred with regularity when enough people feel victimized…it is, after all, what led to the founding of the United States of America.
When did the ice age end? According ti Wikipedia about 10,000 years ago. What melted that ice, jets? Get a grip, the climate always changes, and don’t be so easy on idiots who think this is something new.
It’s not that the climate is changing, it’s the speed relative to prior glacial periods.
And you or anybody else were here to document every one of those events? They seem to persist in creating flawed science using flawed historical evidence. It’s all guess work at best. Florida is still high and dry forty years after the experts said it would be under water twenty years ago. And yet, we want to destroy society with this nonsense.
So founding of the United States and the right to elected representation is at the root of all this idiocy. Don’t we all have a societal and moral obligation to be responsible or is this just an inconvenient time to consider what the free world might mean to folks who stream across borders, risking anything from incarceration to death to be a part of?
Well, these “protesters” are just idiots. That’s clear.
But IMO the bigger picture is that the business aviation industry is losing, or in the least-favorable interpretation, has lost, the battle for hearts and minds. Remember the seal hunt? There were various protests, some similar to that seen here here, by people who were mocked and ridiculed at the time as lawless, anti-social, bearded wierdos. Some time later, the seal pup fur industry stopped laughing when the bearded weirdos had won the battle for hearts and minds. These days, those who like to wear seal pup fur do not do so because they don’t want to, they don’t do it because of the public reaction that it would provoke.
Would it ever become the same with the use of private jets routine travel requirements? I think that the jury is still out on this one, and the verdict may not go in biz aviation’s favour without some timely and effective action by the industry.
I see lots of info in AvWeb and all the other usual places, where industry bodies highlight the social benefits of biz av. In today’s newsletter, I saw something about biz av helping patients receive medical treatment. I agree with it all, and I guess that other readers do as well, but I think that it’s a case of preaching to the converted.
More than half of biz jet flights are to Florida, Palm Springs, the Caribbean and ski resorts. Necessary flights?
It doesn’t matter whether the flights are necessary or not. If they have the money, resources, and time, people will fly where and when they may.
Emotions should not rule the day. I want to see an objective set of replicated studies on the environmental cost of alternate forms of energy. It will be difficult to convince me that the bottom line of acres of solar panels, mining for and disposal of spent batteries, and gigantic wind farms isn’t as harmful (and perhaps MORE harmful) than our usage of fossil fuels.
We are free here and I pray that it will remain so.
If you would take the time to investigate, you would learn the most of private jet flights are not for personal use. They are a business tool just as important as a computer. Many companies use them to make contacts and service calls to numerous clients and customers in a single day verse having their high paid employees wasting time in airline terminals. Usually, many miles away from the customers office. For a business, they are a virtual time machine. For a patient in need of a body organ, they are a life saver. For those who use them for their enjoyment, they’ve earned it. So set your jealousy aside.
Got front page news. Got you thinking about it. Mission accomplished.
Spot on. They accomplished their mission.
I don’t support damaging property but I do understand why young people protest. It is they, not the old men posting here (of which I am one), who will have to suffer the worst impacts of climate change. In their minds, we burn the fuel, they suffer the consequences. 2023 was the hottest year in recorded history and likely the last 100,000 years. Wanna bet 2024 will be hotter?
You’re drinking the cool aid. It has been much hotter in “recorded history” and the atmospheric CO2, it’s not carbon by the way, has been MANY MAGNITUDES higher and life flourished, in fact NO LIFE would exist on earth without CO2.
Read something other than the brainwashed media parrots like Steven Koonin, Richard Lindzen and Patrick Moore (former Green Peace founder).
The crisis isn’t the climate, it’s the freedom you and all of us will lose as the government takes away our rights under the guise of a false “climate emergency”.
The cool aid I drink comes from every University and respected scientific organization in the world. I’ve actually read the people you cite. I saw Richard Lindzen speak once. He’s a born contrarian and at odds with the vast majority of climate scientists. I am not an expert. I choose to believe mainstream scientists.
It’s good to see that you don’t air condition your home, heat it in winter, or drive any type of motorized vehicle. I’m sure you don’t own anything made of plastic, or have ever traveled anywhere in the world except by wagon train or on the back of a donkey. You must have a hard time living, when about 6000 everyday products people use in the world are derived from oil or natural gas.
Just because Robert D expresses his opinion that climate change is real, doesn’t mean he has to disconnect from society and become a cave man to prove his virtue. In fact if he did so you’d abuse him even more as being unstable. Many people hold the belief that climate change is real and take steps to reduce their footprint, some more than others, but its a personal choice. You seem to think that by acknowledging climate change you must transform into Great Thunberg or else you’re a hypocrite.
“ but its a personal choice.”
No. It’s not. And that’s the problem.
Well this old man can clearly remember when the scientist were predicting just the opposite. The world was headed for another ice age. That was sometime around the late 1950s and 60s. One of the few good things about getting old is you learn how to seperate the beef from the bullshit. Not to mention the knowledge you won’t have to put up with the insanity this world has become much longer.
These people are not climate activists. They are climate terrorists. They will continue their destructive actions until they are held accountable. These two idiots need to pay to have these aircraft repainted and cover the owners cost to lease aircraft while AOG for 3-6 months. Probably 7 figures.
As far as we have oil underneath our feet, it will never be stoped to be used. No matter how many freaks are out there trowing temper tantrum.
Is it covered by aircraft insurance? I recall there is a mandatory “anti-terrorism clause” that was added to our insurance a few years ago. Effectively these people are climate terrorists.
And the insurance companies have all sort of thugs (I mean ways) to recover their losses. Those idoits will pay. Cash!. One way or the other. The insurance companies never pay. They either drag you rear into court or they increase the premiums to cover it. I prefer the first in a criminal case. Hopefully the bill collectors chase their asses until the day they die.
Dear FAA,
How are theses losers getting on the flight line?
The FAA has little say in how STN runs their operations.
Um, I don’t think that the FAA has any say over security of UK airports…
Have paint sprayed on these protesters as well, since they also leave a carbon footprint.
These “protesters” are in it for their 15 seconds of fame. It’s the Instagram generation.
Hmmm, I’m torn…Defacing a jet – BAD; Taylor Swift’s, ah, so what!
They should still be treated as terrorists and locked up until the stupidity of fossil fuel hatred stops!
Or maybe they can be moved to a desert island, and fend for themselves without energy other than maybe burning coconut oil…?
“Hmmm, I’m torn…Defacing a jet – BAD; Taylor Swift’s, ah, so what!”
We Americans are proud of people working themselves up from low means to ultimate success… unless you get too successful, then… villain.
You don’t have to be a fan, I’m not… but she’s not a child molester, anti-society individual.
She became successful at her trade and has profited. The American dream.
Why the hate?
I wouldn’t have picked orange, but you have to admit that all white jet needed some color.
The main thing that’s settled about climate science is that climate scientists who support man-made climate change get grants. Dissenters lose their funding and possible their careers. There are plenty of scientists who are skeptical of the party line, but they generally keep their mouths shut.
It is generally agreed that doubling the CO2 level in the atmosphere would, by itself, only produce a fraction of a degree of global temperature increase due to its greenhouse effect. The controversy in the science is the theory that the effect of CO2 is amplified by water vapor to produce much higher temperature changes. However, if that were true, wouldn’t life on earth have been wiped out eons ago when the CO2 levels were much much higher that today? In any case, it is most certainly not settled science.
Just another reminder why the UK is better avoided.
The two most reliable topics for generating, um, outlier comments, are climate change and tetraethyl lead.
I know some of you don’t like it but, anthropogenic climate change is real and it is going to get a lot worse. Unless you are death’s door, it will get worse during your lifetimes (as it has for the past 20 years, BTW). And, no, it is NOT a plot to control the citizens of the USA or any other kind of nefarious conspiracy. Newsflash, internal communications within oil producing companies shows their own belief that anthropogenic climate change is a reality. What is their motivation for acknowledging it?
Comments like “Without CO2 there would be no life on the planet” are completely irrelevant when it comes to climate change. It is like telling a person who has heatstroke that without any heat in their body they would be dead. So what.
And, while I don’t blame people in their 20s for being active on this issue, I do not support their vandalizing airplanes as an act of protest. They are scared out of their minds that the planet will be destabilized by climate change and the evidence is on their side. BTW, no they are not “terrorists”, they are vandals who have damaged property.
Finally, one commenter complaining when another commenter yet again blames yet another problem on DEI is not censorship or a desire for totalitarianism. Saying one comment is OK and the other is some sort of censorship is a double standard.
Ten thousand years ago half of North America was covered in massive glaciers so you are right, the climate has and is changing. Look up a few things like solar variability, earths orbital variation on climate, lack of cloud effect on climate computer models and GLOBAL GREENING from the increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, which still is only .04%, thats FOUR ONE HUNDRED OF ONE PERCENT.
In the meantime if you are so concerned about a climate catastrophe you can opt out of every technology and product that makes modern civilization possible, unfortunately the climate will still change, and probably for the benefit of humanity.
👍 R100Rs
Seems that majority comments here are coming from “right” and that statements that global warming is myth. It is hard to change “Americans addition on oil, like one of our ex-presidents said long time ago. Yet future is changing faster then we expect, and EV and electrification including air transport is shaping majority of Europe, 5-10 fold faster then in America. Yet attack on private jets in Europe are becoming more common and those kids do get desired attention.
“ statements that global warming is myth”
You’d be hard pressed to find that in the comments above.
I would like to ask AvWeb powers to be to consider changing your style guide to use the term “Vandals” in a situation like this rather than “Climate Activists.” “Terrorists” would also be a more accurate term. Irrespective of their goals or personal beliefs, they are attacking members of the public who have the legal right to live in contradiction to the perpetrators beliefs. Unless and until the public media can refer to these criminals for what they are, they will never be seen truthfully. We all want a nice planet to live on, but because someone disagrees with how that should happen doesn’t give them the right to attack other citizens. These people are criminals plain and simple.
While I agree with the vast majority of present day initiatives aimed at the environment, the concept of “climate change” is statistically ignorant. We have records for maybe 300 years of this planet’s weather history. The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. 100 years of change out of 4.5 billion is not “climate” change. It’s asking 10 people outside of a American Nazi meeting and then concluding that all 333 million people in the US want Hitler back – statistically dishonest. I don’t dispute the numbers of course, but we don’t have an adequate sample to claim a valid conclusion. But saying it’s hot lately isn’t going to create the “sky is falling” reaction that activist prone humans need to create. Again I want to see us work to minimize our effect here, but is neither urgent nor should it be frightening.
you are right once again.
How DARE THEY! I guess one can’t be a eco warrior (as they fancy themselves) AND a Swiftie at the same time. I find that hilarious. Wait until that bunch or similar, find out about AirVenture. I’m a bit impressed by these groups, as I assume they walk everywhere they go, grow all their own food, and otherwise live like cavemen (I mean, cavepeople), so as to not indirectly use any oil. I’d love to follow one around for a day, and point out how every single thing they do, use, eat, and on and on, is only possibile thanks to Big Oil, like it or not.
You are right as well IMHO.
“The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. 100 years of change out of 4.5 billion is not “climate” change. It’s asking 10 people outside of an American Nazi meeting and then concluding that all 333 million people in the US want Hitler back – statistically dishonest.”
Sorry, Bill, but time series analysis of global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 levels is not the same as generalizing from a biased sample of meeting attendees. Yes, I am a statistician and no, your analogy does not demonstrate “statistical dishonesty” among climate scientists.
Think of it this way, you have a fever of 105 degF and you go to the emergency room. They calmly explain that your fever is nothing to worry about because you have only been this hot for a tiny, minuscule, portion of your entire life. Maybe best to just wait it out and see what happens. What is the statistically honest thing to do here?