Two women have been charged with criminal damage and other crimes after activists from Just Stop Oil painted private jets with orange paint at Stansted Airport.
Jennifer Kowalski, 28, and Cole Macdonald, 22, are due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
They are said to have caused more than £5,000 worth of damage.
Essex Police said its officers responded to an incident in the private area of an airfield at the airport on Thursday.
A statement from the force said police were called at around 5am to reports that two people had gained access to an area away from the runway and main passenger terminal “before causing damage to two aircraft”.
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He said officers “arrived on the scene quickly” and two people were arrested “within nine minutes” of the call being made.
Kowalski, from Dumbarton, and Macdonald, from Brighton, were charged with criminal damage valued at more than £5,000, aggravated trespass and interfering with national infrastructure, authorities said.
Quick escape
Essex Police confirmed that pop star Taylor Swift’s private jet, which Just Stop Oil said had landed in Stansted “just hours earlier”, was not at the airport.
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Activists entered the airfield and spray-painted two private jets with fire extinguishers filled with orange paint, the environmental group said.
Stansted and its flights continued to operate normally on Thursday.
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