DThe taking of a four-year-old girl hostage on the tarmac at Hamburg airport has had a happy ending after more than 18 hours of war of nerves. The police arrested the armed hostage-taker, who had had his daughter in his power since Saturday, without resistance on Sunday afternoon. “The suspect got out of the car with his daughter,” the police wrote on X. “The child appears to be uninjured.”
This marks the end of the hostage-taking that began on Saturday in Stade, Lower Saxony. From there the 35-year-old drove to Hamburg airport. There, around 8 p.m., he broke through a barrier at the gate to the airport apron with his car, in which his daughter was also sitting. He shot into the air on the premises and threw incendiary devices from the car. His car then sat next to a Turkish Airlines plane for more than 18 hours. The police tried for hours to end the hostage-taking without bloodshed – and were finally successful early on Sunday afternoon.
“Many thanks to the Hamburg police for their commitment and the prudent approach that enabled the four-year-old girl to be freed and the perpetrator arrested,” said Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD). “I wish the mother, the child and their family a lot of strength to overcome the terrible experiences.”
During the nerve-wracking police operation, flight operations in the north were suspended. The airport expects operations to be largely normal on Monday. After the hostage-taking at the airport ended, flight operations resumed at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. The first aircraft took off and landed again. There could still be significant cancellations and delays before the end of operations. However, 152 takeoffs and 162 landings are planned for Monday.
However, according to the information, it may occasionally happen that flights are canceled or delayed. “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,” the statement says.
According to Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD), it was “one of the longest and most challenging operations in recent history” for the Hamburg police. He would like to thank all police colleagues for their strong performance.
Custody dispute as a starting point
The man got into an exceptional psychological situation due to custody disputes in Stade with his ex-wife, the officials said on Sunday evening. This was preceded by an argument during which the man pushed the child’s mother aside and immediately fled with the girl in the car towards Hamburg. According to a spokesman, the hostage taker’s ex-wife reported to the state police about possible child abduction.
The man lies on the ground at the airport, surrounded by police
Source: dpa/Jonas Walzberg
During the hour-long negotiations with the 35-year-old, the girl who was held hostage in the car appeared to be physically unharmed, according to police. The child could be heard in the background of the phone calls with the man, police spokeswoman Sandra Levgrün told the German Press Agency.
The officers had been negotiating with the kidnapper throughout the night. The conversation was in Turkish, said Levgrün, who emphasized during the operation: “We are relying on a negotiated solution here.” According to the head of the DRK Hamburg crisis intervention team, Malte Stüben, the mother “of course wanted to get to her child as quickly as possible.” . The woman was therefore in direct contact with the DRK at the airport. According to Stüben, a pediatrician was also there to look after the four-year-old girl after she was taken hostage.
As it became known on Sunday, the hostage taker had already been sentenced to a fine in the past for kidnapping his daughter. This act probably occurred last year, said a spokesman for the Stade public prosecutor’s office on Sunday evening. He could only give exact information about the amount of the fine on Monday. The man was convicted of kidnapping minors by the Stade district court. At that time he traveled to Turkey with his daughter without authorization. However, the child was later brought back to Germany by the mother. “Bild” had previously reported on the earlier verdict.
“Scary” and “scary”
The airport remained largely closed on Sunday. The number of flights canceled due to the hostage-taking at Hamburg airport rose steadily. According to information from the airport on Sunday morning, 126 flights had already been canceled between the actual start of operations at 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. Five arrivals were redirected to other airports. 286 flights were actually planned for the entire day – 139 departures and 147 arrivals – with around 34,500 passengers. Already on Saturday, 27 flights with around 3,200 passengers were affected.
“Scary,” “creepy” – that’s how passengers who were taken out of their planes described their impressions. A young woman who wanted to fly to Mallorca told dpa that she saw a fire and at first thought it would be quickly put out. Then she heard there was a shooting spree, and that was scary. In fact, the armed man had thrown incendiary bottles as he drove through the airport, which started fires on the apron.
Numerous passengers spent the night in an airport hotel. “We ultimately accommodated 250 people here,” said Frank Kohlstädt, head of the DRK station at the airport. Around 200 people also received hotel rooms. People were more excited than psychologically stressed.
Hamburg airport had already been closed in October, but at that time because of a threat of attack on a plane from Tehran to Hamburg. In July, climate activists from the group Last Generation shut down Hamburg airport for hours. At that time there were calls for security to be strengthened. Despite the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport sees no failures in securing the area. “Securing the site complies with all legal requirements and largely exceeds them,” an airport spokeswoman told the dpa.
Criticism of security deficiencies at airports
Nevertheless, there was also criticism of the 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 secured with concrete barricades, and our airports, as high-security areas, are neglected by operators,” says 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 preferred targets for terrorists for decades. There are planes on the aprons 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”.