Anyone who unlawfully enters security areas at commercial airports in Austria and leaves graffiti on runways apparently has nothing to fear. “Because nothing was broken,” the public prosecutor’s office closed the investigation against the “climate smearers” who hit Innsbruck Airport.

The mere fact that at the Tyrolean airport it was not initially noticed that unauthorized people had gained access to the security area and the runway area - probably at night spray painted a message, which represents at least a not entirely unfounded assumption that self-proclaimed “climate activists” could have been at work, caused a stir. The airport reasoned that the area was very large.

The perpetrators were able to remain completely anonymous because they were not noticed. The public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against unknown persons. This has now been discontinued. A spokesman for the law enforcement agency confirmed this decision to the Tiroler Tageszeitung. The reason given was that there was no damage to property and that air traffic was not affected. In general, the graffiti, which according to the public prosecutor's office was only discovered a few days later, did not bother anyone.

The decision of the Innsbruck public prosecutor's office certainly raises a number of questions, as there is at least a not unfounded assumption that there are no recordings from any surveillance cameras that could be helpful in identifying the perpetrators. This means that the investigation is likely to be at a dead end, because without any information about possible perpetrators it becomes complicated. However, the publicly announced justification is certainly questionable, because it can even be interpreted by self-proclaimed “climate activists” as a license to say that invading security areas at Austrian airports and daubing runways “is” anonymous and unpunished.