STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Did Just Stop Oil, an environmental activist group, spray orange paint on Taylor Swift's private jet at London Stansted Airport in June 2024? No, that's not true: Essex Police arrested two women from the group, whose exploits were filmed and posted on social media, but the video did not appear to feature Swift's Falcon 7X jet. They did break into the private aviation area at the airport and damaged two aircraft but according to news reports quoting police sources a private jet chartered by Swift was not among them.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) published on X, formerly Twitter, by george on June 20, 2024. The post's caption said:
Just Stop Oil activists have now spray painted Taylor Swift's private jet orange...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jun 20 15:51:25 2024 UTC)
The Just Stop Oil video
The video shared on social media was originally posted on X by Just Stop Oil (archived here) on June 20, 2024. The caption for their post said:
🚨 JUST STOP OIL PAINT PRIVATE JETS HOURS AFTER TAYLOR SWIFT'S LANDS
🔥 Jennifer and Cole cut the fence into the private airfield at Stansted where @taylorswift13's jet is parked, demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.
The video shows two women cutting through the airport fence and spraying orange paint on the planes. The group never said it sprayed Swift's plane, only that the aircraft had arrived there hours earlier.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jun 20 17:05:51 2024 UTC)
London Stansted Airport
In a June 20, 2024, email to Lead Stories, an airport spokesperson provided this statement. They said:
Shortly after 5 am, Essex Police arrested two protestors who had entered the private aviation area of the airfield, away from the runway and main passenger terminal.
As a precaution, runway operations were suspended for a short period, but no flights were disrupted, and the airport and flights are operating as normal.
Essex Police
Essex Police detailed the incident in an online statement. It said:
Officers have responded quickly and made two arrests following reports of people gaining access to a private area of an airfield at Stansted Airport.
We were called shortly before 5.10am today (Thursday 20 June).
It was reported two people had gained access to an area well away from the runway and main passenger terminal, before causing damage to two aircraft.
Officers were on the scene within minutes and detained two people.
The airport and flights are operating as normal.
A 22-year-old woman from Brighton, and a 28-year-old woman from Dumbarton, have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and interference with the use or operation of national infrastructure.
Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow added:
'We are not anti-protest but we will always take action where criminal acts take place.'
In an email response to Lead Stories on June 21, 2024, Essex Police added, "Neither plane damaged was linked to Taylor Swift."
Tracking Swift's plane
Visual evidence also tells us that Just Stop Oil didn't deface Swift's plane. Taylor Swift Jet's, a Bluesky social media account that tracks her private jet and calculates its carbon footprint, identifies her plane as a 2009 Dassault Aviation Falcon 7X. You can see an image of the same type of plane below:
(Source: Boutsen Aviation screenshot taken on Thu Jun 20 23:40:29 2024 UTC)
As seen below, neither of the two planes that were damaged in the social media post's video matches the Falcon 7X and its distinctive third-engine design. Additionally, there's no aircraft registration number match to Swift's plane either, which is N621MM. The plane on the left doesn't show such a number and the one on the right with N1875A, also does not match.
(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Jun 20 2024 UTC)
Google search
Lead Stories searched using keywords on Google News, visible here (archived here), and found no credible reporting as of June 20, 2024, to corroborate the claim that "Just Stop Oil activists have now spray painted Taylor Swift's private jet orange."
Swift was in England, playing three shows at London's Wembley Stadium from June 21-23, 2024.
Read more
Other Lead Stories articles on claims regarding Taylor Swift are here.
Another Lead Stories fact check regarding Just Stop Oil can be found here.
Updates:
-
2024-06-21T12:33:56Z 2024-06-21T12:33:56Z Adds response from Essex Police and removes same information previously attributed to CBS News. -
2024-06-20T23:13:06Z 2024-06-20T23:13:06Z Adds details about Taylor Swift's plane.
