Despite the hostage-taking, Hamburg Airport sees no failures in securing the area. Police unions speak of an outdated security concept. An aviation expert makes a harsh verdict.
The recent hostage-taking at Hamburg airport has sparked a debate about the security of German airports. Unlike in many places where security bollards that are retractable into the ground prevent unauthorized vehicles from passing, at Hamburg Airport red and white barriers actually appear to have been the only obstacle to an armed man with his daughter as a hostage on his way into the security area.
And it was not the first time that unauthorized persons were able to gain access to the Hamburg airport premises. Just this summer, activists from the “Last Generation” cut through a metal fence and stuck themselves to the runway. Now the question arises again as to how the 35-year-old was able to get onto the airport apron by car.
Airport sees no failures in security
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 news agency. Nevertheless, given the size of the airport – it covers almost 800 football fields – it cannot be ruled out that “highly criminal, unauthorized access to the security area can occur using brute force.” In order to ensure the safety of air traffic, in addition to structural measures, alarm chains were also established, “which worked perfectly.”
As a result of the actions of the last generation, there are no new requirements for critical infrastructure facilities. The airport is currently testing new camera and fence sensor systems. “In addition, the patrolling of the fence by security forces has been sustainably increased.”
She did not want to comment on the barriers, which were obviously easy to break through. The spokeswoman only wrote: “Please understand that we do not provide any further information about the security concept.”
Regulations are outdated
The chairman of the police union (GdP), who is responsible for the federal police and customs, said in an interview tagesschau24, that in view of the incidents the question arises as to whether the security concept at Hamburg Airport is still up to date. Hamburg Airport complied with the applicable safety regulations, but these are no longer up to date. “We urgently need to create a security concept that corresponds to today’s standards,” said Roßkopf. It is impossible to imagine what could happen with a terrorist motive.
According to the GdP chairman, the standards required today include monitoring airports and overall vulnerable infrastructure with cameras and using motion sensors. “And we have to work with barriers and gates on access routes that cannot be broken through, at least with a normal vehicle.”
In Germany the danger in this area is increasing, so something must be done now. However, the airport operators always act according to the instructions they receive. Politicians are therefore asked to adapt these requirements accordingly, said Roßkopf. “The legislature must provide very clear regulations here so that the airport operators are forced to introduce these protective measures so that the danger that we are currently experiencing is kept as low as possible.”
“Stepmotherly treated”
The professor of police science at the Police Academy, Rafael Behr, and the deputy federal chairman of the German Police Union (DPolG), Heiko Teggatz, are also emphatically calling for better protection of airports. “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,” said DPolG Federal Vice President Heiko Teggatz to the dpa news agency.
Politicians are doing far too little about this. “I also miss an initiative from Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.” Apparently no one is seriously forcing the airport operators to increase security measures to such an extent that such incidents simply can no longer occur.
Behr said in an interview with the NDR, the security concept must of course be put to the test: “I also cannot understand why the airport company is now retreating to the legal requirements, which probably do not determine anything stricter.” Meeting legal requirements is one thing. “But when we look around the world, we see that perpetrators don’t care about which legal requirements are met or not. Instead, we have to protect this sensitive traffic situation better. And that definitely needs to be put to the test.”
The Aviation Security Act stipulates, among other things, that in order to protect against attacks, airport operators are obliged to “secure the airside areas against unauthorized access and, insofar as they are security areas or sensitive parts of the security areas, to only allow access to persons who are specifically authorized to do so.” .
“Other airports are not safe either”
The verdict of aviation expert Heinrich Großbongardt, who previously worked at Lufthansa, Boeing and the Cockpit Pilots Association, is correspondingly harsh. “Hamburg airport is not safe – and neither are other airports in Germany,” he tells “Spiegel”. It is a scandal. 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 calls the airport operators and authorities “incredibly naive”.