Restrictions at Hamburg Airport after the end of the hostage situation
One day after the end of the hostage-taking at Hamburg Airport, travelers still have to be prepared for restrictions. The airport announced that "largely normal operations" are expected today. However, some flights could still be canceled or delayed.
According to the police, the Central Office for State Protection of the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Hamburg will take over the investigation into the 35-year-old hostage-taker. So far, the investigation has been conducted by the department for capital offenses.
The man with Turkish citizenship gave up on Sunday afternoon after more than 18 hours of marathon negotiations and handed over his four-year-old daughter, whom he had kidnapped from her mother's apartment, to special police forces unharmed. He then allowed himself to be arrested without resistance.
Beginning and background of the hostage-taking
According to police reports, the man had abducted the child from the apartment of her mother, who lives in Stade, Lower Saxony, on Saturday and fled with her in a car in the direction of Hamburg. At the north gate of the airport, he broke through an access road secured with barriers and drove onto the airfield to a plane ready for take-off. He fired shots from a gun and set off two incendiary devices, which, according to the police, were quickly extinguished.
According to the police, the background to the crime is a custody dispute between the man, who lives in Buxtehude (Stade district), and his 39-year-old ex-wife. He had already traveled to Turkey with their daughter without authorization in 2022. At that time, he had already been investigated on suspicion of abducting minors, which ultimately led to him being sentenced to a fine.
Thousands of people are affected
Operations at the airport were immediately suspended on Saturday evening. The airport and terminals were evacuated and the entire area was cordoned off. Numerous passengers had to spend the night in an airport hotel. "There was no danger to passengers at any time," the police said.
A total of around 920 officers from Hamburg, Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal police were deployed.
Further restrictions after resumption of flight operations
After the hostage-taking ended, flight operations were resumed late on Sunday afternoon. According to the airport, at least 213 of the 286 planned flights had previously been canceled. 152 take-offs and 162 landings were planned for Monday.
Due to the long lockdown, the airport stated in a press release that occasional cancellations or delays were to be expected. "Passengers and those picking up passengers are therefore asked to keep themselves informed about the current status of their flight and to contact their airline or tour operator if necessary."
Airport security called into question
The act has once again brought security at Hamburg Airport into focus. In July, climate activists from the Last Generation group brought the airport to a standstill for hours after cutting a hole in the fence and forcing their way onto the airfield.
The German Police Union (DPolG) is now calling for stronger measures. "It is difficult to understand why, for example, Christmas markets are secured with concrete barricades, and our airports are being neglected by operators as high-security areas," said DPolG Federal Vice President Heiko Teggatz.
Hamburg Airport is not secure "and neither are other airports in Germany", aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt told Der Spiegel. Airports have been known for decades as preferred targets for terrorists. There are planes on the aprons with tens of thousands of liters of kerosene in their bellies and hundreds of passengers on board. Großbongardt therefore called the airport operators and authorities "incredibly naive".
Despite the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport sees no shortcomings in the security of the airport. "The security of the site meets all legal requirements and largely exceeds them," said a spokeswoman.
- The investigation into the hostage-taker at Hamburg Airport, who had a background in a custody dispute, will now be handled by the Central Office for State Protection of the Public Prosecutor General's Office in Hamburg, as the department for capital offenses has been handling it up until now.
- The events at Hamburg Airport, including the hostage-taking and the subsequent evacuation and lockdown, have raised questions about the security measures at the airport. The German Police Union (DPolG) has called for stronger measures, stating that it's difficult to understand why high-security areas like airports are seemingly neglected while lesser targets like Christmas markets are heavily secured.
- Despite the hostage-taking incident, Hamburg Airport insists that their security measures meet and even exceed all legal requirements. However, aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt still believes that the airport operators and authorities are overly naive, considering that airports have been known for decades as potential targets for terrorists due to the large amounts of kerosene and passengers present.
Source: www.dpa.com
