A video reveals Taylor Swift’s personal jet being spray-painted orange by Simply Cease Oil local weather activists within the U.Okay.
On June 20, 2024, two local weather activists from the British environmental activist group Simply Cease Oil reportedly used a round noticed to chop via a fence on the personal airfield of London Stansted Airport in Essex, U.Okay. By their very own accounts, they then vandalized two personal jets utilizing hearth extinguishers stuffed with orange paint. Social media buzzed with claims that one of many jets belonged to pop star Taylor Swift, however this turned out to be false.
Just Stop Oil posted a video of the incident on its X account, displaying the obvious vandalism of the 2 plane and asking for donations. The video acquired over 6 million views as of this writing and included the next message:
🚨JUST STOP OIL PAINT PRIVATE JETS HOURS AFTER TAYLOR SWIFT’S LANDS
🔥Jennifer and Cole minimize the fence into the personal airfield at Stansted the place
@taylorswift13‘s jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to finish fossil fuels by 2030.
That publish didn’t explicitly declare that Swift’s jet, a Dassault Falcon 7X, was vandalized, however social media shortly spread the false assertion. As an example, a publish from the X account Visegrád 24 claimed, “Taylor Swift’s personal jet has been spray painted orange by ‘Simply Cease Oil’ activists,” receiving 2.1 million views as of this writing.
In the meantime, the X account i newspaper — in a publish that acquired 300,000 views as of this writing — made an analogous assertion, incorrectly stating that “Simply Cease Oil have focused Taylor Swift’s personal jet in a spray-paint protest at Stansted Airport.”
India’s Free Press Journal additionally made a equally false assertion that “one of many plane focused was a non-public jet registered to Taylor Swift.”
The activists, Jennifer Kowalski, 28, and Cole Macdonald, 22, claimed accountability for the vandalism, and had been reportedly arrested and charged with legal injury, aggravated trespass and interfering with nationwide infrastructure.
Regardless of the deceptive social media posts, a number of information studies and native authorities confirmed that Swift’s jet was not among the many broken plane. Simply Cease Oil’s X publish didn’t explicitly state that Swift’s jet was spray-painted however talked about the timing and site in a manner which will have contributed to the confusion.
Kowalkski and Macdonald delivered a message on digicam whereas at Stansted, with the broken jets within the background:
Jenn: “Hello, I am Jenn and that is Cole. We simply spray painted the [expletive] out of this jet.”
Cole: “And the one behind it.”
…
Cole: “My title is Cole, I am 22, and I’ve simply sprayed two personal jets orange. We want a global treaty towards the burning of all oil, coal and fuel. Whereas individuals are ravenous, the elite and the wealthy fly 1000’s and 1000’s of toes within the air above us all. Billionaires will not be untouchable.”
Makes an attempt to contact Kowalkski and Macdonald on-line had been unsuccessful.
Flight Monitoring Knowledge Situated Swift’s Personal Jet
Flight monitoring information and information studies confirmed that Swift’s Falcon 7X jet landed at Stansted around 11 p.m. the earlier evening, June 19. Local Essex Police and a Stansted Airport representative informed journalists within the U.Okay. that Swift’s jet was not on the airfield through the protest, although its actual location was unclear.
Snopes reached out to Swift’s representatives, who didn’t instantly reply.
Snopes spoke with an officer of the Essex Police, who confirmed that Swift’s personal jet was not among the many two plane that had been allegedly broken by the local weather activists, informing us that “we understood via our personal communication with the airport that [Swift’s private jet] wasn’t there [at the time of the alleged incident], however we won’t say someway. … We do not know the comings and goings of personal residents.”
A news release from Essex Police, dated Saturday, June 22, 2024, didn’t point out Swift or her personal jet, however did word that the 2 accused ladies had appeared in courtroom earlier that day. Per Essex Police:
Two ladies charged as a part of our response to an incident within the personal space of an airfield at Stansted Airport have appeared in courtroom.
Cole Macdonald and Jennifer Kowalski had been denied bail and remanded into custody throughout a listening to at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court docket earlier at this time, Saturday 22 June.
Each ladies denied three expenses and can subsequent seem at Chelmsford Crown Court docket on July 22.
Our investigation was launched early on Thursday 20 June after we had been alerted to studies of two individuals having gained entry to an space which is away from the runway and predominant passenger terminal, earlier than inflicting injury to 2 plane.
On account of our preparedness for incidents of this type, officers had been on the scene shortly and two individuals had been arrested inside 9 minutes from the second of the decision being made to us.
As of this writing, Essex Police had not up to date info concerning Macdonald and Kowalski’s launch from custody.
A consultant of Stansted Airport confirmed to Snopes that the incident passed off in a non-public aviation space of the airport that isn’t managed by Stansted. In response to the rep, “These operators don’t reveal particulars of any shoppers they might have, for safety and confidentiality causes.”
In response to citizen-operated flight tracking data web sites — which use publicly obtainable flight information that the local weather activists reportedly additionally used to trace Swift’s jet to its location at Stansted — the singer’s Falcon 7X took off from Warwick, Rhode Island, on June 19 and landed within the U.Okay. that night. Per flight monitoring web site TS Jet Tracker, her jet had not left Stansted and remained on the airfield when the spray-paining incident occurred, contradicting the studies from Stansted representatives and Essex Police.
(TS Jet Tracker)
Jack Sweeney, the creator of the TS Jet Tracker web site (who has discovered notoriety along with his social media accounts monitoring the personal jet utilization of celebrities together with Swift and Elon Musk), denounced the obvious actions of Macdonald and Kowalski. Responding to the false social media claims concerning the alleged vandalization of Swift’s jet, Sweeney wrote on X, “Not her aircraft! Photoed is a Gulfstream, Swift personal’s no Gulfstreams. I condemn these actions.”
Tail Numbers Do not Lie
All plane have distinctive tail numbers, or registration numbers, assigned by nationwide aviation authorities, guaranteeing every plane might be individually recognized. For instance, within the U.S., these numbers begin with “N” adopted by a mix of numbers and letters, whereas in different international locations, completely different prefixes are used. This method is crucial for monitoring, regulation and security.
Whereas the vandalized jet within the video foreground didn’t have a visual tail quantity, the vandalized jet with blue stripes within the background confirmed the tail quantity N1875A. In response to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), this jet is registered to a trustee of U.S. Financial institution in Wilmington, Delaware.
The tail quantity on Swift’s personal jet is N621MM. In response to the FAA, this jet is registered to an organization known as Island Jet Inc. that has reportedly shared the identical Nashville tackle as Taylor Swift Productions.
On Swift’s Falcon 7X plane, the tail quantity isn’t positioned on the tail, however somewhat, on two of its three engines positioned on the sides of the jet. Three years in the past, Southend Aviation, a YouTube channel that movies plane taking off and touchdown at U.Okay. airports, posted a clip of Swift’s jet taking off from Stansted Airport, the tail quantity N621MM clearly seen on the right-side engine.
A screenshot from the X account Free Press Journal reveals one of many local weather activists spraying the jet within the viral video’s foreground, indicating that, not like Swift’s personal jet, there was no tail quantity current on the plane’s right-side engine.
Swift was within the U.Okay. for her Eras Tour, performing a sequence of concert events in London earlier than heading to Dublin, with a efficiency scheduled for June 28 within the Irish capital.
Her use of a non-public jet has drawn criticism for being environmentally irresponsible and tone-deaf, significantly in gentle of the local weather disaster. In 2022, Swift confronted backlash for being among the many top celebrities with the highest private jet emissions. Regardless of her important philanthropy and advocacy work, her frequent use of personal aviation stays contentious.
The declare that Simply Cease Oil activists spray-painted Swift’s personal jet is fake. Her jet was at Stansted the evening earlier than the protest, but it surely was not amongst these broken through the incident, although flight monitoring information appeared to contradict statements from Stansted Airport and Essex Police concerning the situation of Swifts jet on the time of the incident.
Snopes has beforehand reported on Swift’s private jet usage.
