After last weekend’s hostage-taking, Transport Minister Volker Wissing called on airport operators to review their security concepts. “In Hamburg, the hostage taker only had to break through a barrier to get onto the runway. That can’t be right,” the FDP politician told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “What has now happened in Hamburg must be a reason for all airport operators to review their own security concepts and make adjustments if there are opportunities for improvement.”
Wissing said more needed to be done to deter such acts. “The penalties for entering the security area of airports are too low. According to the current legal situation, this is only punished as an administrative offense with a fine of up to 10,000 euros.” That is a loophole in the law. Together with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), he asked Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to make a proposal for a change to the Aviation Security Act.
“Anyone who intentionally encroaches on airport premises endangers people’s safety and causes significant economic damage. This must be prosecuted as a criminal offense in the future,” said Wissing. According to his idea, this should result in a prison sentence or “at least a hefty fine”. Wissing said Faeser responded that she would be happy to take up the initiative.
Last Saturday, a 35-year-old broke through the access restrictions to Hamburg Airport in a car and drove onto the airport apron. The background was a custody dispute: According to the public prosecutor’s office, the man wanted to use the action to force his daughter, who had previously been violently kidnapped from his ex-wife’s apartment in Stade (Lower Saxony), to leave the country for Turkey. Only after around 18 hours of negotiations did the hostage taker surrender to the security forces. In response, the head of the airport, Michael Eggenschwiler, announced on Tuesday structural measures to improve security.
