The Heathrow Pause group, the NGO that unites ernvironmentalists seeking to high light carbon emission issues, said in a statement that they had so far conducted three drone launches at Heathrow in London, with one of them being successful, desite an earlier placed dispersal order. They added more drone flights are planned for the rest of Friday.
Two were arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on suspicion of a conspiracy to commit a public nuisance, in a pre-emptive strike by London police on Thursday, a day before the people who appeared to be climate activists planned a major action. It was earlier reported the number of the detained activists was five.
According to a spokeswoman for London's Heathrow Airport, there has been no disruption to airport operations because of the activists, who planned to utilise drones for grounding flights.
A two-day dispersal order has been put in place in the area surrounding the major London airport.
The Heathrow Pause group, of which the detained individuals are a part, aims to ground flights by illegally flying drones within 5 km of an airport, to demonstratively exert pressure on the government so that it takes tougher steps to reduce carbon emissions into the environment.
"The action will carry on exactly as planned, peacefully and non-violently, regardless of today’s events - we have contingency measures in place", the group said in a statement on Thursday.
Earlier this week, police expressed certainty that the action would not lead to a repeat of the chaos seen at Gatwick last December, when drone sightings grounded planes in the run-up to Christmas paralysing the airport. They also warned the attempted disruption would be classified as a serious crime.