Hamburg Airport Reopens After World War II Bomb Defused

Image: PHOTO: Hamburg Harbor and Cityscape, Northern Germany (Photo via jotily / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Image: PHOTO: Hamburg Harbor and Cityscape, Northern Germany (Photo via jotily / iStock / Getty Images Plus)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 12:05 AM ET, Fri October 18, 2019

Almost 75 years after the end of World War II, relics and weapons are still being found across Europe.

And one of them shut down an entire airport.

Experts were brought in Tuesday to defuse a World War II-era bomb that shut down the international airport in Hamburg, Germany, for almost three hours.

The airport reopened late Tuesday night.

"Hamburg Airport just reopened," airport authorities said in a tweet. "The WW2 bomb in Hamburg-Schnelsen was successfully defused. All waiting flights can depart/land from now on. Please keep in contact with your airline regarding your current flight status."

Officials tweeted earlier that the airspace above the airport was closed because of the discovery of the bomb in the Hamburg-Schnelsen section of the German city. No flights were departing or arriving at the time, approximately 8:00 p.m.

It wasn't only the airport that was affected. Officials advised residents on Twitter to follow "air-raid behavior," an antiquated term from when Allied planes use to bomb German cities during the war. Residents were told to stay away from windows.

This is the second time in five months a bomb was found in Hamburg. In May, a 1,000-pound American-made bomb was uncovered in the city and forced the evacuation of 6,000 people in the Heimfeld neighborhood.


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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