One of the most noted and widely popular air carriers in the history of civil aviation was, as on Friday March 5, 2021 left stunned and that too, in one of the most important world cities. In what can be rightly be called a shocker from Paris, it was an Air France Boeing carrier that woke up to experience rude shock on not such a fancy Friday.
As it turns out, an Air France Boeing 777 was left vandalized and that too in the famous French capital Paris. Coming under the undesirable ire of activists, the said air carrier was left vandalized with imprints of green color botching up the look and appearance of what is otherwise an imposing king of the skies.
So what exactly happened and why did the Air France Boeing 777 meet with such unwanted fate?
News reports confirmed, within hours of the sudden incident at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport, that a coup of activists from the not for profit climate organization Greenpeace had stuck the Air France Boeing 777 jet.
In emerging from the cold, the Greenpeace activists first successfully bypassed the security at the noted French airport, such a major transit point in Western Europe, only to gain the standing location of the Air France 777 shortly thereafter.
But that was only the curtain raiser to the real shocking incident that would soon follow. So the clear question is- just what took place moments after the said Greenpeace activists found the air carrier?
The perpetrators proceeded to spray paint the aircraft green- would you believe it? Just who would have thought that such an incident would take place in broad daylight in a city like Paris!
News media soon reported that the those charged with the unwanted course of action were actually dressed in all whites and were adorning vests. Interestingly, the vests signaled, “greenwashing in progress” as if to symbolize a significant step in correcting a major wrong.
Many would wonder- was protesting about the huge contribution to air pollution- the irritant in this scenario? Else, why would such an unwanted course of action take place in a leading world city?
What’s rather shocking is that instead of this being a random one-off episode aimed at gathering cheap publicity, the entirety of action- wherein the protestors erected ladders to reach the fuselage of the aircraft- was recorded and broadcasted onto social media.
That said, the following transcript of the action was shared on Greenpeace France’s social media channels:
Direct Action – Want to See a Green Plane?
While the climate emergency demands a reduction in air traffic, @Djebbari_JB [Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, French Transport Minister] still thinks that a (hypothetical) green plane will suffice.
We denounce government greenwashing.
Furthermore, a popular website dealing with content on aviation had the following excerpts to share on the sudden Parisian incident:
The activists’ website goes on to explain what the issue is here. They claim that they are not against technological innovations, but that they do not believe it’s enough to solve the climate crisis.
Greenpeace hits out at the notion of a ‘green’ plane, something that France has been targeting the development of with its funding. They say that none of the solutions proposed, including biofuels, hydrogen and electric, will work.