Berlin Airport Closed By Climate Activists Glued To Runway

European climate cultists upped the ante in their increasingly deranged war on fossil fuels on Thursday, bringing flight operations at Berlin Brandenburg Airport to a complete standstill for an hour and a half. 

Reuters reports that activists from the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) group entered the airport from both the north and south ends, with some glueing themselves to the tarmac. According to the group, others rode bikes around the taxiways. The trespass began just after 4 pm local time. 

“The plane is not a means of transport for ordinary people,” tweeted the group. “Most people – around 80% – have never flown. One affluent percent of the population is responsible for about half of all flight-related emissions.”

Letzte Generation demanded that the public stop using airplanes to travel, and tweeted video of its members entering the airport through a hole cut in a chain-link fence:

+++ Flugverkehr am BER eingestellt +++

Das Flugzeug ist kein Verkehrsmittel für Normalbürger:innen. Die meisten Menschen – etwa 80% – sind noch nie geflogen.
Ein wohlhabendes Prozent der Bevölkerung verursacht allein etwa die Hälfte der flugbedingten Emissionen. pic.twitter.com/Avfg5tDeqw

— Letzte Generation (@AufstandLastGen) November 24, 2022

Police detained the trespassers, but not before they caused misery for an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 travelers to and from Berlin’s primary commercial airport. In addition to those stuck in the airport or on airplanes awaiting takeoff 15 flights to Berlin were diverted to Düsseldorf, Leipzig/Halle and Dresden. 

The same group is behind many attention-seeking stunts across Europe in recent months, such as throwing food on famed works of art, disrupting a Hamburg orchestra concert by gluing themselves to the conductor’s podium, blocking road traffic, and vandalizing businesses and government buildings with orange paint. 

Letzte Generation activists have covered Monet’s Les Meules in mash potato.

The protestors then glued themselves to the floor at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam. It is unclear if the painting was damaged. https://t.co/Av2TSbR4iI pic.twitter.com/myup95RBtm

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 23, 2022

Local authorities condemned the latest stunt: 

Brandenburg Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) described the action as a “dangerous intervention in air traffic.” It was “a serious crime” that “in the worst case even endangers human life. There’s no justification for that.” He called the activists criminals. — German broadcaster RBB

Berlin police said protestors showed “they are ready to commit crimes and that the democratic framework is of no importance to this organization.”

At least one passenger stuck on an airplane maintained his sense of humor: 

Ryanair have also kindly portrayed the harrowing effects of climate change by ensuring the heat on the plane resembles a Mediterranean summer in the year 2050.

— Neil Delaney (@neilpdelaney) November 24, 2022