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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Howard Lloyd

Climate change activists break into airport and paint entire plane orange

Climate change activists broke into an airfield and painted an entire plane orange. They reportedly used bolt cutters to gain access to Sylt Airport in northern Germany before covering the plane in paint.

A group named Letzte Generation - which translates as 'Last Generation' - claimed responsibility for the action online. It was later tweeted by Just Stop Oil, which has caused controversy in the UK for the high-profile climate activism.

After painting the aircraft bright orange, they made a speech directed at German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. No security or police are seen intervening throughout the video.

According to Letzte Generation's website, they used bolt cutters to cut through the airport fence at two different points. Then they used fire extinguishers to cover the plane, before unfurling banners on the wings reading 'Your luxury = our drought' and 'Your luxury = our crop failures'.

Spokesperson Theodor Schnar said: "Mr Scholz’s tackling consists on the one hand of ever further delays in matters of climate protection and, on the other hand, of a plan that the Federal Constitutional Court has described as insufficient. To date, the Scholz Government has not presented a concrete plan on how to meet its own climate targets."

Breaking Aviation News & Videos claims that the people were arrested but later released and remain under police investigation, although this is yet to be verified. The site also claims that flight operations were not affected.

At the nub of the protest was people using private planes for short-distance journeys. Letzte Generation claim that a four-hour private flight emits as much CO2 as the average person does in a year.

Te protest comes hot on the heels of France's decision to ban short-haul domestic flights. A government decree means that any journeys that are possible in less than two-and-a-half hours by train cannot be taken as a flight.

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