Broke through fence

Climate activists sprayed private jet on Sylt

On Tuesday, Last Generation activists sprayed a private jet on Sylt.

(Bild: Jonas Gehring)

Climate activists from the Last Generation group have sprayed a private jet on Sylt with orange paint and taped themselves to it. According to the German police, five people between the ages of 21 and 60 were involved.

The Last Generation claimed to have cut through the airport fence in two places with bolt cutters. Members of the group then ran to the aircraft and sprayed a private jet with bright paint. Banners were allegedly rolled out on the wings - with the inscriptions "Your luxury = our drought" and "Your luxury = our crop failures." According to the police, four people also stuck themselves to the wings of the jet with one hand each and one person stuck to the tarmac in front of the plane. The group posted photos and videos of the action on Twitter (see below).

The bright color makes the climate-damaging effects clear, according to a press release on the action. A four-hour private flight would cause as much CO₂ as an average person in a year. "One thing is clear: the owners of private jets, limousines and superyachts will not leave them behind voluntarily. To reduce these emissions, we will need regulations, laws. Laws of the kind that have made our social market economy strong," said a spokesperson. The government must finally set limits to this waste and destruction. 

Unconcrete demands?
Previously, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had stated in an interview with "Die Zeit" that the demands of the Last Generation were too vague and that action was needed. "Mr. Scholz's approach consists on the one hand of ever further delays in climate protection and on the other hand of a plan that has been described as insufficient by the Federal Constitutional Court (...)," the group responded.

It was not the first action of this kind by the Last Generation. Only about a month ago, a private plane in Berlin was sprayed with orange paint.