Man confesses to kidnapping his daughter during Hamburg airport drama

A man who smashed his car through the gates of Hamburg Airport and parked it on the tarmac with his 4-year-old daughter inside has confessed to the kidnapping of his child and other crimes.

"I just wanted to leave Germany. I wanted the police to find ways to send us to Turkey," the 35-year-old Turkish man said on Monday in a statement read out by his defence lawyer.

The trial is taking place nearly six months after the bizarre incident in November that lasted 18 hours and disrupted air traffic for nearly a day.

He had wanted to fly to Istanbul with his daughter, he said when asked by the presiding judge at the regional court, Torsten Schwarz.

The defendant apologized to the passengers at the airport and the police. "I know that I caused panic," the statement said.

He is charged with hostage-taking, kidnapping of a minor, intentional bodily harm and weapons offences.

The man allegedly kidnapped his daughter from her mother's flat in the nearby town of Stade and then drove to the airport. He broke through three security barriers with the car and then parked on the tarmac. From there, he called the police and ordered that a plane be made available to take him and his daughter to Turkey.

To emphasize his demand, he fired a semi-automatic pistol into the air several times and threw two burning Molotov cocktails out of the vehicle. He also allegedly wore a dummy explosive belt and threatened to detonate the explosives if the police intervened.

A custody dispute with the child's mother is said to have triggered the situation.

The man surrendered to officers after 18 hours. The crisis halted flights to and from Hamburg for about 20 hours.