A historic British commercial flight powered by recycled chip fat faced a protest from naked demonstrators.
History was made as a group of British vacationers flew to Lanzarote aboard a plane powered by used chip pan oil.
The flight from Birmingham airport, operated by Thomson Airways, marked the first instance of a UK commercial biofuels flight originating from a British airport.
One of the engines on the twin-engine Boeing 757 operated using a mixture of 50 percent ‘Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids’ derived from used cooking oil and 50 percent Jet A1 fuel.
In an effort to disrupt the event, environmental protesters disrobed and adorned themselves with red body paint.
Identifying as Plane Stupid, they claimed that rainforests are being destroyed to accommodate biofuel plantations.
The used cooking oil for Thomson’s flights is sourced from hotel and restaurant kitchens and undergoes a specialized processing treatment.
Protester Chris Cooper of Plane Stupid remarked: ‘Thomson appears to recognize that we can’t sustain business as usual during the ongoing climate crisis.
‘It’s unfortunate that their proposed solution exacerbates the problem.
‘Extensive areas of rainforest, which are crucial for combating climate change, are currently being devastated to facilitate biofuel cultivation.
‘Land that could produce food is being appropriated from some of the world’s most impoverished populations merely to fuel aircraft. It’s a catastrophe.’
