Germany: Threat to Iranian plane causes brief disruption at Hamburg Airport

All flights at the Hamburg Airport in Germany were suspended for around 90 minutes on Monday (Oct 9) after receiving a "credible threat" to a flight coming from Iran.

However, the Hamburg airport, which is Germany’s fifth largest with around 11 million passengers a year, announced that it had resumed service. The airport said on its website that the flight service has been resumed.

"There may still be flight delays," the website noted as earlier, all takeoffs and landings were stopped over the threat received by email.

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A report by the New York Times mentioned that the plane, which faced the threat, landed safely and was parked in an isolated section of the airport.

The German air force said on its X social media account that it escorted the plane after it entered German airspace east of Berlin due to a bomb threat.

The police spokesperson told the news agency Reuters that they interviewed passengers, which is normal procedure when a threat is classified as serious.

NYT report added that all 198 passengers and 16 crew members left the plane without incident.

As quoted, Marcus Henschel, who is a spokesman for the federal police at the airport, said the local police apparently took all those on board to an isolated gate and subjected them to vigorous security screenings.

Henschel said that the threat "was determined to be credible and so we initiated the appropriate response".

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In a phone interview with the news outlet, Henschel said that the threat against the plane came in an email sent to several recipients, including the federal police at the airport, on Monday.

The spokesperson also told Reuters that no takeoffs or landings were possible because the airport fire brigade was involved with the search.

The news came on the first day of a special meeting of the German and French governments in Hamburg, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron both attending.

(With inputs from agencies)

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