It has been a terrifying weekend at Hamburg Airport, as there was an armed hostage situation revolving around a child custody case. Fortunately after 18 hours, the situation has been resolved, and no one was injured.
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Child hostage situation at Hamburg Airport
On Saturday, November 4, 2023, at around 8PM local time, Hamburg Airport announced that it was shutting down, due to a situation involving the police. While details were limited at first, that quickly changed. A 35-year-old man reportedly managed to drive his car (an Audi) onto the apron of the airport.
The man was armed, and parked his car underneath a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737. He not only barricaded himself in the car, but also had a four-year-old child in the car. He fired two shot from his gun, and threw two Molotov cocktails (containers with flammable substances) out of the car.
Special forces, negotiators, and psychologists, were all deployed to the airport, and remained in constant contact with the man. Furthermore, by around 12AM, all passengers stranded on planes due to the situation were able to deplane.
Fortunately there’s finally a positive update. After an 18-hour standoff, the man finally surrendered. He has been arrested, and the child is now in safe hands.
Preliminary reports suggest that the man is of Turkish origin, and that this incident was over a child custody case. The man wanted custody of his child, and was demanding that he be let onto the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul with his child. The man’s ex-wife (and child’s mother) had apparently contacted police while the man was on the way to the airport with the four-year-old, warning about what was going to happen.
I’m happy to see that this incident has ended without any injuries. I have to say, as far as kidnapping and/or hostage situations go, this seems like one of the more poorly thought out ones. Like, no matter how you slice it, they’re not going to let a guy with a gun onto a flight to a foreign country.
Hamburg Airport remains closed
Hamburg Airport closed last night at around 8PM, and the hostage situation was only resolved around 2PM on Sunday, roughly 18 hours later. Despite that, the airport is still closed as of now. The airport is in contact with the relevant authorities to decide whether to reopen the access roads, terminals, and resume flights.
The airport had nearly 300 flights scheduled for Sunday, and a vast majority of those have now been canceled. Passengers are of course being advised to not even show up at the airport until operations resume.
Bottom line
Hamburg Airport has been closed since Saturday evening, due to an armed hostage situation. An armed man drove onto the airport apron with his four-year-old child, and demanded to be let onto a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul, so that he could have custody of his child. After an 18-hour standoff, the man surrendered to police. The airport remains closed, but I’m sure that will change in the near future.
What do you make of this Hamburg Airport situation?
I’m surprised it was possible for the driver to get on the runway with his car.
Probably was trying to save his child from psycho german wife.
Really, the name you choose is an exetive? Have a little class and respect. When I see something like that, it reminds me of a snot-nose fool with a pair for undescended testicles.
“(an Audi)”
lol
Relevant detail, as one would have thought otherwise that was more BMW behavior
You sure not a Volkswagen behavior?
No, VW drivers are chill. It's the opposite of people who need to show off. Definitely a BMW behaviour.
Not sure that poking fun at such a serious situation is appropriate, Never in Doubt.
Situation resolved, suspect arrested.
Eskimo, that's correct.
Diversity is our strength!
You are a not too subtle racist troll. Your handle suggests you are a troll. This scenario has played out over and over with white guys in the Midwest. Ben, please erase this person's comment.
In some other countries he would have been shot the moment he fire the shots or threw Molotov cocktails in an airport.
Especially if that person is from a foreign origin.
Luckily we're not some other countries and we try to avoid solving stuff by shooting people, don't kill a kidnapped child just to get airport up and running, and certainly don't take into account whether someone is of "foreign origin" when deciding how to deal with them. That's reserved for third world countries.
What did he think was going to happen?
This an often overlooked complication of child custody with a dual national parent. Each parent requires consent from the other to take the child abroad to prevent child abduction.
Nothing to do with dual nationals, the same applies with "single national" parents.
Who is actually paying for all the financial damages in these situations? Is that the risk of the airlines, airport or this psycho?
It always ends up with the airlines who have to pay for rebooking and accommodation, even if compensation isn’t due. The EC Regulation needs to be reviewed so in such cases passengers should refer to their insurance.
Airlines are free to insure themselves against events like this if they wish so. Why should passengers make their own arrangements when they already paid the airline to get them from A to B? It's not like passengers are any more responsible for this than the airline.
With all due respect before you categorize someone as a “psycho” understand what psycho means. It would mean a lack of empathy and clearly he is able to have feelings since he is doing this for his kid. With all due respect.
He's a psycho. move on.
Jordan he is using his child as a shield to accomplish what he wants. Traumatizing a 4 year old is not an example of someone with good mental health. Without the kid police would have quickly resolved this insanity.
A guy who does this to all the people at an airport is a textbook example of Lack of Empathy. and he's not "doing this for his kid". No empathetic person believes this behaviour benefits his child. I'm a pretty thoughful person and I'm not sure psycho was an inappropriate label in this case. Firearms? Molotov cocktails? On the apron?
He broke into an airport, drove his car under a plane full of people, threw Molotov cocktails out of the window and held his child hostage all because he wanted to board a flight.
Does this sound like sane behavior to you?
I think the point here was that not everyone's who's not sane is a psychopath. There are many other diagnoses.
I hope this is a joke because I chuckled.
Airport remains to be closed. From the aviation standpoint it’s interesting to see inbound aircraft being diverted to HAJ.
Many aircraft are stuck in HAM since yesterday evening.