Five Greenpeace volunteers who occupied the top of a British Airways passenger jet were today convicted at Uxbridge magistrates court.

The campaigners pleaded guilty to being in a restricted zone, boarding an aircraft and demonstrating in an airport. They were each given an 18 month conditional discharge and will pay compensation to BA totalling £5,700.

The five hit the headlines across the world in February when they walked through an open door at Terminal 1 and occupied the fuselage of the BA Airbus for two hours, hanging a banner from the tailfin reading: ‘CLIMATE EMERGENCY - NO 3rd RUNWAY'.

***Broadcast images and photos available on request***

Anna Jones, Sarah Shoraka, Paul Della-Rocca, Frank Hewetson and Jens Loewe were protesting against Labour's plans to build a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow. The plane they scaled had just arrived for Manchester - a journey covered by the train in just over two hours - and was refuelling for another domestic flight. The five waited until all the passengers had disembarked before walking through an open door and going ‘airside'.

A widely derided government consultation into Labour's Heathrow proposals was completed the week of the Greenpeace occupation. Ministers are expected to announce a decision on the proposed expansion later this year.

One of the protesters, Anna Jones, said: "Climate change can be beaten, but not by almost doubling the size of the world's biggest international airport. That's why we occupied the top of BA's Manchester to London flight. A huge number of planes leave Heathrow every day destined for cities easily reachable by train. If we invested in high speed rail instead of climate-wrecking runways we could begin to reduce the environmental impact of Heathrow instead of increasing it."

The most popular destination from Heathrow is Paris, with sixty flights back and forth every day. Flights between Heathrow and locations easily accessible by train - such as Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds/Bradford and Durham - total over 100,000 flights a year.

Flying is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, doubling in the 1990s. According to the government, flights from and within the UK account for 13% of the UK's climate impact because greenhouse gases create more global warming when emitted at altitude.

British flyers already create far more carbon emissions per head than those from any other country - nearly 40% higher than the second placed country, Ireland, and more than twice as much as Americans. The Tyndall climate research centre calculates that if aviation expands as projected, Britain will have to totally decarbonise the rest of its economy by 2050 to effectively tackle climate change.

Sarah Shoraka, another of the protesters, said: "The fight against Heathrow expansion is only just beginning. This new runway cannot and will not be built."

Gordon Brown faces a new headache this weekend as thousands prepare to march around Heathrow airport demanding a halt to his government’s push for a third runway.

West London residents will be joined by environmentalists at the Make A Noise Carnival on Saturday afternoon. The protesters will walk from Hatton Cross tube station then along Heathrow’s perimeter fence to Sipson – the village set to be bulldozed if Brown’s plans for expansion go ahead. There the thousands of marchers will gather in a field to form the world’s biggest ever ‘NO’ – visable to landing aircraft (and descending Prime Ministers).

Pictures and broadcast images taken from a crane above the NO will be made available – roads close at 11am so media vehicles should be in Sipson before then if necessary.

A letter of support from the Archbishop of Canterbury will be read out, while MPs from all the main political parties are joining the marchers. Research by Greenpeace released today reveals growing dissent as most London Labour MPs who reveal their position now oppose their party’s plans for Heathrow expansion. Dissenters even include health minister Ann Keen.

The protest carnival will be addressed by MPs including John McDonnell – whose constituency includes the airport - Richmond representative Susan Kramer and rising Tory Justine Greening. Green MEP Caroline Lucas, environmentalist George Monbiot, local council leaders and Sipson residents will also take the stage before bands entertain the carnival-goers.

Tamsin Omond, who recently scaled the roof of Parliament in protest at Heathrow expansion, is one of the organisers of Make A Noise. She said: “Gordon Brown’s got a real fight on his hands here. People face losing their homes if he gives the green light to a third runway, and they’ll be joined on Saturday by thousands of others who are deeply concerned about increased noise levels and climate change. That’s why we’ll be using our bodies to form a NO so big it will be visable from planes circling Heathrow. The mood in West London is pretty angry right now. If the next election is close then Brown may regret taking us on.”

The Make A Noise Carnival is the last chance for Londoners to register their opposition to expansion before transport secretary Ruth Kelly formally announces the Government’s plans for Heathrow. Labour has said it supports building a third runway, and earlier this year held a ‘public consultation’ widely derided as a sham. Documents acquired under freedom of information legislation revealed extraordinary collusion between Brown’s administration and airport operator BAA, with the consultation process being fixed and unhelpful pollution data ‘stripped out’ (Sunday Times front page, March 9th 2008).

The Government and BAA want to see a third runway and sixth terminal built over the villages of Sipson and Harmondsworth, increasing the number of flights from 480,000 a year to more than 700,000. A quarter of a million Londoners face increased levels of noise, while CO2 emissions from Heathrow would rise dramatically at a time when politicians claim to be tackling global warming. Even Brown’s own environment advisors at the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) are now calling for a halt to Heathrow expansion.

For more information call 07801 212967 - www.make-a-noise.org

Notes:

The Make A Noise Carnival begins at Hatton Cross tube between noon and 12.45 on Saturday 31st May 2008. It will arrive at Sipson at 2.30pm. Video and stills from crane above field will be made available.

There will be no vehicle access to Sipson village after 11am. Sat trucks are recommended to park at the Renaissance Hotel nearby (Bath Road, TW6 2AQ)

Map of start point, route and location of ‘Big NO’