Possibly more bad press

[Robpol]

Extinction Rebellion activists plan to use drones for 10-day Heathrow Airport 'shutdown' this summer

 

[Spikey0321]

Why don’t they just make the exclusion zone larger and make them pay for a license that will stop them......
No wait....?

 

[zocalo]

While we don't need the bad press that the "drone" angle will provide, I doubt this will go far.

Chaining/Glueing yourself to a building or whatever is just going to get you a slap of the wrist fine and maybe a few days in jail. For many of the protestors that's probably a roll of the dice they are willing to take to try and make their point. If you get caught flying a drone within one of the UK's airport NFZs and you're looking at unlimited fines and up to five years in jail *plus* the potential of a civil suit from Heathrow Airport to try and recover their costs. That's not a chance of a slap on the wrist; it's a chance of wrecking the rest of your life, and I'd expect that alone will be enough to deter many of those who might be toying with the idea of taking part in this.

You've also got to keep in mind that the authorities still haven't made an example of anyone for the Gatwick fiasco last year; they can expect a heavy police presence (more polluting SUVs on patrol), likely a proactive deployment of additional technical countermeasures in addition to anything Heathrow might already have in place, and the proverbial book to be thrown at them should they get caught. More importantly, they'll be disrupting the travel plans and residential areas of many of the people that they hope to convince to do their part in saving the environment - hardly a prudent move if you're looking to win over hearts and minds, is it?

Frankly, all this is going to make people do is question their ability to understand the consequences of their actions, and if they're demonstrably no capable of good judgement in the matter of flying drones near airport they why should we think they are going to be any more clueful when it comes to the consequences for the environment?