Hamburg — Flight operations resumed on Sunday evening following the end of a hostage-taking involving an armed man and his 4-year-old daughter at Hamburg Airport, an airport spokesman told dpa.
"The airport has reopened," the spokesman said.
Meanwhile more information was revealed about the hostage-taker, a 35-year-old Turkish father who had previously taken his daughter, without legal permission, to Turkey and been convicted and fined for kidnapping her.
A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office in Stade, where the child's 39-year-old mother lives, said that incident most probably occurred last year but he could not provide details about the fine until Monday.
The 18-hour standoff affected 27 flights with around 3,200 passengers on Saturday. According to the airport, a total of 286 flights with 34,500 passengers were scheduled for Sunday: 139 departures and 147 arrivals. Accordingly, 213 flights had to be cancelled.
According to the website flightradar24.com, the first aircraft to land was a Eurowings plane from Hanover. However, cancellations and disruptions are still to be expected, the spokesman said. Passengers should check their flight status and contact the airline if necessary.
The hostage-taking started in Stade in nearby Lower Saxony on Saturday, when the man and his ex-wife got into a custody dispute, officials announced on Sunday evening. The man pushed the child's mother aside and immediately afterwards fled with the girl in the car in the direction of Hamburg.
Once at the airport, he used brute force to gain access to a multi-security area on Saturday evening. The perpetrator's car was driven through a security barrier at high speed, Hamburg Airport announced a few hours after the hostage-taking ended without serious consequences.
It was clear that the driver did not take into consideration whether he would injure himself, his daughter or security personnel at the gate, they said.
The airport security's staff's top priority then became stopping the intruder as quickly as possible.
Security forces were on site within minutes and flight operations were suspended, the airport said, noting that its security measures meet - and in some cases exceed - legal requirements. But the airport did say it would work "through the incident with the relevant authorities and security forces" in a review of the situation.
The German Airports Association (ADV) believes that complete protection of security areas at airports is not possible.
"In these cases, 100% protection against penetration by brute force is impossible," the association said on Sunday. The 35-year-old had broken through the barriers at the access road with his car, it noted.
The group said airport security measures are "coordinated with the relevant supervisory authorities and the police," and exceed the legal requirements "at all airports in Germany."
In addition to the structural measures, alarm chains have been established that have worked perfectly in all incidents to date, the group noted.
"Flight operations were stopped immediately after unauthorized access. Travellers and employees were not harmed," the group said of the Hamburg incident.
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