The hostage taking of a four-year-old girl on the platform at Hamburg airport ended well after more than 18 hours of nervous warfare. The police arrested the armed kidnapper, who had his daughter in his possession since Saturday, without resistance on Sunday afternoon. “The suspect left the car with his daughter,” the police wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “The child appears to be unharmed.”
This put an end to a hostage situation that had begun on Saturday at the nearby Stade. From there, the 35-year-old drove to Hamburg airport. At the airport, at around 8pm, he broke through a barrier at the airport apron gate with his car, in which his daughter was also sitting. He fired shots into the air at the scene and threw incendiary devices from the car. His car was parked next to a Turkish Airlines plane for more than 18 hours. Police tried for hours to end the hostage-taking without bloodshed – and finally succeeded early Sunday afternoon.
During the stressful police operation, air operations in Hamburg were suspended and the airport was still closed on Sunday afternoon. According to Interior Senator Andy Grote, it was “one of the longest and most challenging operations in recent history” for the Hamburg police. He would like to thank all his fellow officers for their strong performance.
According to police, this was likely preceded by a custody dispute with the mother. According to a spokesman, the kidnapper’s wife, who was said to have been at the Stade, near Hamburg, reported a possible child abduction to state police. Negotiations lasted all night. The conversation was in Turkish, said Levgrün, who emphasized during the operation: “Here we count on a negotiated solution.”
The airport remained practically closed on Sunday. The number of flights canceled due to hostage taking at Hamburg airport has steadily increased. According to information from the airport on Sunday morning, 126 flights had already been canceled between the effective start of operations, at 6am, and 11am. Five arrivals were redirected to other airports. In fact, 286 flights were scheduled for the entire day – 139 departures and 147 arrivals – with around 34,500 passengers. On Saturday, 27 flights with around 3,200 passengers were affected.
On Vienna Airport’s home page, for example, an Austrian flight from Hamburg, which was due to arrive on Saturday night at 9:40 pm, was listed as “delayed”. Three Austrian and Eurowings flights with regular arrival times in Vienna at 11:15 am and 4:40 pm or 8:15 pm did not take place on Sunday. Departures from Schwechat to Hamburg at 7:20 with AUA and one at 8:55 with Eurowings have also been cancelled.
Hamburg airport had already been closed in October, but at that time due to a threat of attack on a plane from Tehran to Hamburg. In July, climate activists from the group Last Generation closed Hamburg airport for hours. At that time, there were calls for security to be beefed up. Despite the hostage taking, Hamburg Airport sees no gaps in security in the area. “Security at the site meets all legal requirements and largely exceeds them,” said an airport spokeswoman.
However, there has also been criticism of security standards at German airports. For the German Police Union (DPolG), for example, the current approach is no longer sufficient. “It is difficult to convey that Christmas markets, for example, are protected by concrete barricades and that our airports, as high security areas, are neglected by operators,” said DPolG Federal Vice President Heiko Teggatz.
Aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt said in “Spiegel”: “Hamburg airport is not safe – and neither are other airports in Germany.” Airports have been known as a favorite target for terrorists for decades. There are planes on the platforms with tens of thousands of liters of kerosene in their stomachs and hundreds of passengers on board.” Großbongardt therefore described the airport operators and authorities as “incredibly naive”.