Greenpeace breaches Heathrow's security

Four campaigners breached security at London's Heathrow airport yesterday, climbing aboard a parked aircraft and unfurling a banner protesting against runway expansion plans.

Police arrested the four from Greenpeace who walked through security at one of the world's most policed airports.

"Climate emergency. No 3rd runway" read the banner they hung on the tailfin of a passenger plane that had just landed after a domestic flight from Manchester.

The protest, with others to follow outside parliament later in the day, came just two days before the end of the government's public consultation on the planned expansion which has pitted business against environmentalists.

Plans build a third runway have sparked protests and a virulent blogging campaign stressing a contradiction between major aviation expansion and attempts to fight global warming.

"The arguments in favor simply don't stack up," said Nic Ferriday of the Aviation Environment Federation. "You can't have the massive expansion of aviation in this country -- led by Heathrow -- when the government is at the same time promising to cut carbon emissions to fight climate change."

Heathrow handles 67.3 million passengers and 471,000 aircraft movements a year, figures which are forecast to double over the next 30 years if expansion goes ahead.

In other aviation news from the UK, a British airline said one of its flights was forced to divert to Turkey after copilot Michael Warren died in mid-flight.

GB Airways said the Airbus A320, carrying 156 passengers from Manchester to Paphos, Cyprus, landed in Istanbul on Sunday after what was termed a medical emergency on the flight deck.

The 43-year-old Warren was pronounced dead once the plane had landed. GB did not give a specific cause of death but said he had died of natural causes.