In response to the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport wants to increase its security concept. “We will implement further structural measures to strengthen possible access points to the security area,” said an airport spokeswoman in Hamburg.
Incidents such as the hostage-taking show that security concepts need to be continually reassessed. “This applies to the entire critical infrastructure, but also specifically to Hamburg Airport.”
Among other things, the AfD parliamentary group in the Hamburg parliament criticized the security precautions at the airport. “Christmas markets and folk festivals are more secure than Hamburg airport,” said parliamentary group leader and domestic policy spokesman Dirk Nockemann. “That’s surprising, because a few months ago climate adhesives walked onto the runway and stopped operations.” It can’t be that a pair of wire cutters or a car ride is enough to bring the airport to a standstill.
Bloodless end to the hostage situation
According to police, a man kidnapped his four-year-old daughter from her mother’s apartment in Stade on Saturday and fled with her in a car towards Hamburg. At the airport he broke through a barrier and drove his car onto the airport apron. After a war of nerves that lasted more than 18 hours, the man surrendered to the police on Sunday afternoon. The hostage-taking ended bloodlessly.
The hostage-taker, who has Turkish citizenship, was scheduled to be brought before the judge on Monday. “There is still no arrest warrant, no presentation to the judge has taken place yet,” said senior public prosecutor Liddy Oechtering.
The Hamburg police initially withheld further information about the 35-year-old hostage-taker from Hamburg airport. The spokesman was unable to answer the question of whether the man may have worked at the airport and was therefore familiar with the location, citing the ongoing investigation. “Beyond that, I cannot provide any information about this for police tactical reasons,” it continued.
Family of the hostage taker known to the youth welfare office
The family of the hostage taker is known to the Stade district youth welfare office. “For reasons of social data protection and out of consideration for the well-being of the child, we cannot provide any further background information at this point,” said an authority spokesman for the dpa.
According to the police, the perpetrator was placed in a detention center after police measures were completed. A police spokesman explained that evidence was seized, the man was identified and blood was taken.
A few hours after the bloodless end of the hostage-taking, the airport began normal operations as planned on Monday morning. The first planes took off for Lisbon and Frankfurt am Main at around 6 a.m., according to the flight plan published on the Internet.
Additional machines should then follow at close intervals. Flight operations had already started again on Sunday after the police operation ended at around 5:30 p.m. There were still cancellations and delays until the end of operations.
