Depending on who you believed, Sunday's environmental demonstrations at Heathrow Airport, the world's busiest international hub, were going to be mostly peaceful and would not interrupt airport operations.

Or a hard core group of protestors were going to jump the fences and head for the two runways while others caused chaos in the terminals.

Protestors kept to their word and did not go near the airport.

The owner of Heathrow, BAA, had vowed to keep the airport humming and the police vowed to keep campaigners from moving beyond the village under threat from the proposed expansion of Heathrow and the headquarters of BAA. Authorities also said they would ring the H.Q. with riot police.

They too kept to their words.

But it didn't mean there weren't dozens of news organizations on hand, just in case. A producer from New Zealand's TV NZ told me they thought some flights would be disrupted and because they believed protestors were going to "lay seize" to BAA's headquarters. After seeing protestors dancing to live music in BAA's parking lot, some bringing their small children with them, the producer assumed we were all at the wrong building. We weren't.

The day began with about a thousand campaigners awaking from their soggy tents in a muddy field they dubbed "The Camp for Climate Change." Before lunch they were joined by hundreds more who came for the "Day of Direct Action." Some of these people were retired folks who live in the village of 700 hundred homes which would be flattened for a third runway. There were also church and school groups. Many of these people marched a mile or so from the camp to map out the location of the proposed expansion.

But we told by organizers the would 'break the law' to make their point about air travel and climate change. That turned out to be a group, maybe a hundred or so, who jumped the back over a fence at the back of the camp and headed for BAA. It was there riot police and a few mounted ones to keep them hemmed in. There were a few minor scuffles there.

Others moved there from the front of the camp, with police escorts (which did not stop one of them from swiping the lunch of my cameraman. Though she did not get far before my cameraman caught up to her and got all of it back).

Once we all moved to BAA, there were a few more skirmishes between the police and protestors. We watched closely as police and demonstrators talked about clearing the entrance to the car park so a van full of officers could leave. It was interesting to see the negotiating skills of both sides. The police said they would wait another five minutes for campaigners to decide what to do. Those sitting on the ground chatted among themselves while a few ran off to 'gage' the opinion of others. There was even some light banter between the two as the police kept a relaxed stance. But the protestors did not move. It was obvious the police were going to move them when I noticed the Police medic showed up. Then the riot squad walked up and moved everyone in about 30 seconds. One man was picked up, and pushed aside while a policeman placed a knee on his head. The man still had a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he was sat upon. A young woman of college age was literally thrown onto the sidewalk. In essence, they were moved and the van left.

But then more protestors showed up, the rain came back, the music was turned up, more police arrived (one asked if he could come with us when we said we leaving) and a carnival atmosphere took off. That's when the TV NZ producer got confused.

The protestors had laid seize, but to nothing more than a parking lot miles from any of Heathrow's five terminals. But the leaders said their point was not destruction, but to let the British government know that it can't talk about cutting CO2 emissions while insisting Heathrow must expand for economic reasons.

-- From Jim Boulden, CNN International Correspondent, in London.