It’s not every day you see passengers fleeing an airport like extras in a thriller, but that was the scene in Milan’s Malpensa Airport. Before we jump in, let’s be clear about this: flights were continuing with no grounded planes and firefighters were on top of their treatment. So, panic? Brief. Damage? Absolutely.
Let’s set the scene and the player in this unplanned drama: a 28-year-old man from Mali, armed with a hammer and a heedlessness for destruction, arrived at Terminal 1 Wednesday morning and decided that the check-in counters were in need of an explosive, more edgy, redecorating. Reports indicate that the suspect soaked one of the counters in flammable liquid that he lit up before going all-in demolition by smashing walls and screens with his hammer.
The wild part about this event is that it wasn’t a slow-motion rampage: border security came onboard quickly, fire crews engaged, and still other passengers engaged as well. One viral video clip showcases a random passenger striking the attacker on the head with a fire extinguisher and another playing quarterback tossing the hammer away as it was an episode of action rubbish on TV. It’s not your usual airport experience.
And here’s the kicker: even though all that chaos happened, the airports association told everyone that it was under control pretty quickly. “The situation stabilized after the person who committed the reckless act was arrested,” they said on X. When was this? Around 11 a.m. local time, hammer guy acts, alarms go off, people freak out. A few hours later, everything was cleaned up, except for the smoke and plenty of broken counter areas. Hundreds of travelers were seen waiting outside the terminal while various cleaning personnel cleaned up inside.
To make things all the more interesting, this mishap comes less than a month after a man died at Milan Bergamo after getting sucked into an airplane engine. So, yeah, Milan airports have had quite a few weeks.
In summary – Terminal 1 experienced a heated renovation, but authorities got it under control, and the airport continued to operate.
