Activists from the group, known as Heathrow Pause, say their drones will only be flown at head-height, far away from the runways and any planes, and pose no risk. Police disagree though, saying the airspace around all airports is “restricted for public safety and security.”
UK law enacted in March 2019 states that any drone flying within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of an airport risks endangering aircraft.
The sightings, which affected tens of thousands of people, exposed a soft spot in airport security where potentially just one individual with a drone can cause widespread chaos. Heathrow Pause says exploiting this vulnerability is the only way to draw people’s attention to the climate emergency.
“I could no longer just sit back and let things carry on as normal,” Davidsen told CNN. “I refuse to leave a dying planet for future generations by not taking an action.”
She said her main goal is to force the UK government to take climate change seriously — for example by scrapping its plans to build a third runway at Heathrow.
Davidsen’s determination to “do something” is so strong, she is willing to go to jail — a likely outcome given that flying a drone within the airport’s exclusion zone is illegal, and punishable by a prison sentence of five years and/or an unlimited fine.
In fact, ending up in handcuffs appears to be an essential part of her plan.
“We have been studying defiance from the last 150 years,” she said. “The way to force change is by attempting disruptive, non-violent, respectful action that has an element of sacrifice.”
The sacrifice, said Davidsen, will be her imprisonment.
It won’t be difficult for the police to find her. Heathrow Pause has publicly announced its plans, held several meetings with authorities, published press releases, and shared its detailed plans on social media.
In fact, Davidsen, from Northampton, in central England, said that once her drone is in the air, the group will call the police to alert them so they can come to arrest her.
The Metropolitan Police said it was ready to act. “Far from this being a lawful protest, this is the deliberate and criminal targeting of an essential part of the UK’s national infrastructure that thousands of people rely on every day and it will not be tolerated,” the Met’s Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said in a statement.
He said the force will be deploying extra officers for the operation, and has warned activists they will be prosecuted.
Heathrow said it will work closely with the police and other authorities to keep planes flying. The Met said it has a “robust policing plan” to make sure any disruption is “averted or kept to a minimum.”
Davidsen says she is also ready. “[We will] without doubt end up serving some time in prison and that’s going to have a huge impact for us personally, and for our families,” she admitted.
“We’re hoping that this action could be the pivotal change we need in the society, for people to really wake up and say ‘wow, these people are prepared to go to prison, they are good people, ordinary, law abiding people, not extreme activists, acting to make a change that we all need.'”
She is taking her activism seriously, having quit her job as an accountant in July in order to focus on the cause. She is living off her life savings.
Climate emergency
While the government was praised for adopting the 2050 target, it has been criticized for the lack of concrete policy proposals that would help the country achieve it.
“They cannot take this emergency seriously and increase flights,” said Davidsen. “They cannot do that. It’s insane.”
However, Extinction Rebellion has stressed the Heathrow action is separate. “Extinction Rebellion UK does not support an action at Heathrow as designed at this time,” the group said in a statement, admitting that “people in the movement have had different views around this proposed action.”
“Tension has arisen from figuring out the most effective way to tell the truth about the Climate and Ecological Emergency we face,” it added.
Davidsen has spent the last few days learning how to fly the drone she purchased for £45 ($55.50). On Friday, she is planning to fly it no higher than six feet up, about a mile from the airport.
She insists the action will pose no danger. “It has no impact on [or] any risk to any person or any flight, which is the whole purpose of it because we are completely non violent,” Davidsen said.
The group also rejected blame for any travel disruption. “If any planes are grounded, it will be Heathrow Airport’s decision,” it said in a statement.
However, Davidsen has made it clear grounding flights is exactly what the group wants — and said there are enough activists equipped with drones to keep the disruption going for a while.
If one gets arrested, another will pop up with a drone somewhere else, they claim.
Drone protest at Heathrow: The activists hoping to cause chaos at Europe’s busiest airport
