The view from the top

Anna (left) at Heathrow airport yesterday

I’ve been campaigning a long time, though I've never done anything quite like this. Walking out onto the tarmac of the world's biggest airport and climbing onto a plane wasn't like any other Monday morning I've experienced. But with no sign of the government changing its mind on airport expansion, it was a step we felt had to be taken.

We managed to take our message onto the plane quickly, safely and effectively. The sun was shining and we wrapped our banner, which read "Climate Emergency – No Third Runway", around the tail fin of the BA plane that had just come in from Manchester – a destination you can get to in just under two hours by train.

We alerted the security at Heathrow immediately, and the emergency services were quickly on the scene. The police and fire-brigade were great – they were calm and courteous, and handled everything really well. After a few minutes the phone started ringing and I spoke to several journalists from where I was standing at the tail. After about an hour the police took us down from the plane on a 'cherry-picker' and we were arrested.

Some people have questioned what we did, calling us irresponsible and stupid. But it's the government that is irresponsible and their reckless plans to expand the UK's airports that are stupid. Yesterday we exposed the hole in Heathrow's security, but we did it to show up the even bigger hole in Gordon Brown's climate change policy. Last night over 2000 people turned out to Westminster Central Hall to say no to the third runway; our action is just a part of the huge movement which will not let this runway be built.

This is a time like no other. The threat of climate change is real and urgent, and we have a duty to the planet to do everything we can to fight that threat. When politicians act like they've got their hands over their ears, sometimes we need to do something extraordinary to make sure they can't look away. Our message was strong, our action was bold. But it was safe and it was proportionate to the threat we're facing.

The climate scientists tell us we've only got 100 months to start bringing our emissions down. Yet this government is pushing ahead with plans to almost double the size of Heathrow airport and expand other airports across the country. If that's allowed to go ahead, we have no chance of getting our emissions down. That's why Gordon Brown needs to listen to the tens of thousands of voices who are telling him that he must take responsibility for the future of the planet and say no to the expansion of Heathrow.