crime
Entry of hostage takers: airport gates with impact protection
A mobile crash protection system secures an entrance to the airfield at the southern end of Hamburg Airport. photo
© Christian Charisius/dpa
An armed hostage taker breaks through an entrance at Hamburg airport with a car. This act revealed significant security vulnerabilities. Now the airport gates are better protected.
Almost six weeks after a hostage taker broke into the… There are new structural safety precautions at the entrances to Hamburg Airport. These include concrete barriers and mobile impact protection systems, as an airport spokeswoman explained.
Some exits have also been relocated. Permanent reinforcements are expected to replace the emergency measures in the coming weeks. The plan is to install massive protective systems such as steel folding gates and hydraulically retractable steel bollards. The airport is investing over one million euros in this.
Incident in November
The modifications are intended to prevent vehicles from forcefully entering the airport premises. On November 4th, a 35-year-old man broke through a barrier consisting of several barriers in a rental car and raced onto the airport apron. His four-year-old daughter was also in the car. According to prosecutors, he fired three shots from a pistol, threw two incendiary devices and threatened to use a bomb that later turned out to be a dummy.
The background to the crime was a custody dispute: the man wanted to force his daughter, who had previously been kidnapped from his ex-wife’s apartment in Stade (Lower Saxony), to leave the country for Turkey. The hostage taker only surrendered after around 18 hours of negotiations. The incident and the police operation are also the subject of a meeting of the citizens’ interior committee today.
Improve security
After the incident, airport boss Michael Eggenschwiler announced structural measures to improve security. After the intrusion of climate activists last July, new cameras and fence sensors were installed. The airport spokeswoman explained that these are currently being tested.
Ten members of the Last Generation group cut through the fence on July 13th and rode their bicycles towards the runway. According to the federal police, four were stuck on access roads near the runways.