Airport activist goes on US jaunt ... aboard flight from Heathrow

A leading anti-aviation activist has secretly flown to New York to hold meetings with American airport protesters - and see the sights.

Former public-schoolgirl Katrina Forrester, who helped co-ordinate campaign group Plane Stupid's third runway protest on the roof of the House of Commons in February, boarded a BAflight out of Heathrow on Tuesday.

She flew to JFK airport in New York to begin a series of meeting with American anti-aviation campaigners.

Miss Forrester, 22, a graduate of New Hall, Cambridge University, who received the top first in history in her year, hopes to encourage US activists to co-ordinate protests with their British counterparts. But she also admitted to fellow activists: "I want to see New York before I'm charged with something and can't ever go again."

Miss Forrester's trip provoked charges of hypocrisy from the aviation industry. Michelle Di Leo, director of Flying Matters - a group which supports "people's right to fly" - said: "Here they are busy telling other people not to do the very things that they themselves enjoy the benefit of." Lord Soley, a former west London MP and campaign director of Future Heathrow - a coalition of trade unions and business lobbying to expand the airport - said: "We need more intelligent arguments than them simply telling people to stop flying. Although she seems to have personally discovered there is an alternative argument."

Miss Forrester did not apply for a US visa and could be there illegally, following her arrest in 2007 for chaining herself to the gate of Biggin Hill airport. The US Consulate in London states: "Travellers who have been arrested, even if the arrest did not result in a criminal conviction... are required to apply for visas. If they attempt to travel without a visa, they may be refused entry into the United States."

A source at Plane Stupid said: "Katrina is doing proper networking, travelling around the universities of America trying to get support. She probably should have taken the boat but the boat cost £4,000 and the plane was so cheap. Plane Stupid does not ask for all airports to be shut down - it is asking for people to fly in moderation. This is her first flight for four years." Miss Forrester was unavailable for comment.