More fear than harm. Air traffic was suspended for around 90 minutes on Monday at Hamburg airport in Germany, a few hours before a meeting between Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron, due to threats targeting a plane coming from Iran.
Interrupted at midday, traffic was able to resume around 2 p.m., but flight delays may occur, depending on Hamburg Airport. The German police having deemed the threat against the Iranian plane “serious”, it was placed “in a safe position” upon its arrival, around 12:30 p.m. local time, from Tehran.
“A threat of attack targeting an Iranian plane”
The 198 passengers and 16 crew members were directed to a separate evacuation door and subjected to a security check while the plane and luggage were searched. The federal police received Monday morning “by e-mail a threat of attack targeting an Iranian plane”, according to the airport police spokesperson to AFP.
Around German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, government teams from the two countries are expected in the port metropolis of northern Germany, the country’s second city, from Monday.
The plane carrying the President of the Republic from Paris is expected in Hamburg in the afternoon where it must land at a secondary airport, that of Hamburg-Finkenwerder near the site of the aircraft manufacturer Airbus where Emmanuel Macron will go.