Bangkok Balloon Protest Endangers Airport Today

If you’re flying out of Bangkok today, be very, very careful.

Residents living near Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi airport have threatened to release a wave of balloons into the air to disrupt flights today.

The source of this dangerous protest is the airport itself. Villagers living nearby have complained bitterly to authorities about the horrific noise pollution which has destroyed their otherwise bucolic lifestyle since the airport opened a year ago. The airport authorities responded to their complaints with gifts of earplugs and sleeping pills. This, as you might imagine, hardly placated the airport’s angry neighbors. What they really want is some financial retribution so they could move to quieter environs far away from the jumbo jets.

So far, the government isn’t willing to concede to this demand and as a result, the airport is facing the balloon protest today. Let’s just hope that none of the balloons cause a plane to crash into one of the local villages. That would be ironic, wouldn’t it?