{"id":19454,"date":"2026-10-01T08:56:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19454"},"modified":"2026-09-27T11:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T10:34:39","slug":"heathrow-flashmob-against-airport-expansion-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=19454","title":{"rendered":"Heathrow flashmob against airport expansion – 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Heathrow
Some travellers came to the die-in with the message ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ inside their suitcases<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Heathrow flashmob against airport expansion<\/strong>: On Saturday 1st October 2016 I made my way from Hatton Cross Station with protesters to Terminal 2 after we were informed that this was where the planned ‘#StayGrounded<\/em>‘ flashmob protest organised by Reclaim The Power was to start shortly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heathrow
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although the location had been kept secret before the event, and most of the several hundred protesters told to gather at the underground station, Heathrow security seem to be expecting us when we arrived and the Departures lounge and had obviously decided to treat the event with a minimum of intervention so as not to give it greater publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security watched the protest standing around the area where it was taking place and only stopping protesters when they tried to go in further to the check-in area, but otherwise making no attempt to stop the protest or prevent me and the other press photographing it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heathrow
I, seated at left, watch some of the protesters<\/em> as we wait for the protest to start<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I sat somewhat uneasily in the departures lounge, discretely photographing the protesters, many of whom had come with suitcases and bags to blend in with the passengers until red handkerchiefs have the signal for the protest to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heathrow
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When it did come the protesters quickly moved into the open space and staged a die-in, some opening their jackets to reveal ‘No Third Runway’ t-shirts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heathrow
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Others took out aprons from their luggage and stood with the message ‘Climate Change Has A Death Toll’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Heathrow
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

People began to loudly read out information about the effects on climate of air travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some taking part in the die-in had brought posters and held them on their chests and others wore medical face masks to point out the pollution caused by air traffic and road traffic bringing fliers to the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The readings continued and a group of protesters dressed as ‘frequent fliers’ in business suits apparently waiting to catch a plane became increasingly restive at being held up by the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some of the ‘frequent flyers’ began to move forward stepping over the protesters to reach the ‘High Polluters Club Frequent Flyer VIP Check-in’ which had been set up for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There they sipped champagne (from empty glasses to comply with airport restrictions), chatted idly and held up large cartoon ‘speech bubbles’ with messages including “When People have to fight to breathe clean air, the government is not fit for purpose<\/em>“, “‘I got \u00a3100K bonus this year<\/em>“, “I’m one of the 15% who make 70% of flights<\/em>” and “I‘m flying to my 2nd home in France<\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next came some songs specially written for the occasion which unfortunately I didn’t record and then some dances, with an an aviation version of ‘Ring a-Ring of Roses’<\/em> which of course ends with everyone falling down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the protest came a special version of ‘Auld Lang Syne<\/em>‘ against airport expansion and a little more dancing before we all left the terminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I took a few pictures on the way out, then went to the bus station to catch a local bus to Terminal 5 from where I could get a bus home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But as well as the protest inside the airport I had photographed, there had also been a protest by cyclists which had been met with a huge reaction from the police, disrupting traffic for miles around and leading to wide diversions. My bus was diverted by the M4 and M25 taking over twice as long as normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Heathrow flashmob against airport expansion<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Heathrow expansion is now back on the table, although only if it can be shown to be consistent with our climate change obligations. Of course there is no real chance that it ever can be, but often things like this have been fudged to allow things to happen – Heathrow itself only came about on the basis of lies that it was needed for military use. And a very significant part of this fudging is the recent Draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement published in June 2026 and the proposal to prioritise hub airport capacity and national economic growth as ‘Critical National Growth Infrastructure’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Flickr<\/a> – Facebook<\/a> – My London Diary<\/a> – Hull Photos<\/a> – Lea Valley<\/a> – Paris<\/a>
London’s Industrial Heritage<\/a> – London Photos<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All photographs on this page are copyright \u00a9 Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heathrow flashmob against airport expansion: On Saturday 1st October 2016 I made my way from Hatton Cross Station with protesters to Terminal 2 after we were informed that this was where the planned ‘#StayGrounded‘ flashmob protest organised by Reclaim The Power was to start shortly. Although the location had been kept secret before the event, … Continue reading Heathrow flashmob against airport expansion – 2016<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[1971,2762,25652,25660,25651,25663,25665,4360,25649,744,25662,25655,25653,8378,2228,25648,25664,25657,17,25650,2832,25654,4430,83,16,25659,25658,19318,15722,2765,25661,25656],"class_list":["post-19454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-own-work","category-political-issues","tag-1971","tag-airport-expansion","tag-aprons","tag-auld-lang-syne","tag-climate-change-has-a-death-toll","tag-climate-change-obligations","tag-cngi","tag-cyclist","tag-departures-lounge","tag-die-in","tag-diversions","tag-dying-for-clean-air","tag-frequent-fliers","tag-hatton-cross","tag-heathrow","tag-heathrow-flashmob","tag-heathrow-lies","tag-high-polluters-club","tag-london","tag-luggage","tag-masks","tag-medical-masks","tag-no-third-runway","tag-peter-marshall","tag-protest","tag-ring-a-ring-of-roses","tag-speech-bubbles","tag-stop-airport-expansion","tag-t-shirts","tag-terminal-2","tag-traffic-disruption","tag-vip-check-in"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19454"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19456,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19454\/revisions\/19456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}