Flights at Hamburg Airport Suspended after Iran Plane Threat

Flights to and from the northern German city of Hamburg were suspended for about one and a half hours on October 9 after the country’s police received a threat to a passenger plane arriving from Tehran, officials said.

All landings and take-offs at Hamburg’s airport were halted at 12:40 p.m. local time, and some arriving flights were diverted, German news agency dpa reported. 

Operations resumed later, but the airport warned on its website that delays were still possible.

Federal police said they received an emailed threat on the morning of October 9 of an attack on the Tehran-Hamburg flight and were taking it seriously. No details were provided.

The German air force said that it escorted the plane after it entered German airspace east due to a bomb threat.

+++ Heute morgen wurde unsere #Alarmrotte aus Laage aktiviert. Ein ziviles Flugzeug auf dem Weg von Teheran nach Hamburg wurde -nach einer Bombendrohung- von uns nach Eintritt in den deutschen Luftraum östlich von Berlin bis zur Landung in Hamburg begleitet+++@HamburgAirport

— Team Luftwaffe (@Team_Luftwaffe) October 9, 2023

After the aircraft landed in Hamburg at about 12:20 p.m. the 198 passengers and 16 crew members underwent a security check, while the plane and luggage on board were searched.

There was no immediate update on the outcome of those checks.

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