The talk of the town on January 5, 2003 is actually different.

The Main has burst its banks, the peak of the flood wave is imminent, more than 5.40 meters are forecast.

Protective walls shield the Römerberg from the river, helpers fill thousands of sandbags, the drinking water is treated with chlorine as a precaution.

On that Sunday, however, the sun was shining from the sky, and Frankfurters flocked to the Main to look at the flooded embankments and take souvenir photos.

Matthew Trautsch

Coordination report Rhein-Main.

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When the small plane with the long, narrow wings appears in the cloudless afternoon sky, the flood tourists think nothing bad at first.

Maybe a reconnaissance flight.

But then word got around that the motor glider had been kidnapped.

The police announced over loudspeakers that the city center was closed and that passers-by should go to Sachsenhausen via the Untermain Bridge.

A police officer emphasizes the request: "Leave the danger zone!"

In the meantime, the motor glider is doing its rounds over the city, flying higher and lower between the high-rise buildings, appears to be spinning, then stabilizes again and flies another menacing loop.

For those watching, the images of September 11, 2001, when two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, spring to mind.

Even then, there had been speculation in "Mainhattan" about the danger of similar attacks on the Frankfurt bank towers.

Should that day have come now?

The fear is justified, even if the machine is not a Boeing 767, but only a sports plane called Super Dimona HK 36 TC.

At 2:55 p.m., the machine was hijacked at the airfield in Babenhausen in southern Hesse.

The kidnapper is a 31-year-old psychology student from Darmstadt who had long ago obtained a pilot's license but had not renewed it.

At the airfield, he states that he wants to do a sightseeing flight, then forces the pilot out of the plane at gunpoint and sets course for Frankfurt.

At around 3:30 p.m. he informed the tower at Rhein-Main Airport that he would be out of fuel in two hours.

Then he will steer the plane into the high-rise building of the European Central Bank (ECB) on Willy-Brandt-Platz.

The tower will be cleared immediately.

Two fighter jets on an intercept course

A TV station is conducting a live interview with the pilot, which may be questionable in terms of media ethics, but it does provide information.

The thirty-one-year-old says he doesn't want to kill anyone, but he wants to end his own life by falling into the skyscraper.

He wanted to commemorate the American astronaut Judith Resnik, who died in 1986 in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

"She deserves more attention, she was the first Jewish woman astronaut, and maybe that's why she doesn't really get any attention." That's why he also calls for Resnik's relatives in Baltimore to be called on the phone.

The student keeps in touch with air traffic control via radio.

A police psychologist gets the impression that the thirty-one-year-old is not a terrorist, but unfortunately with a "loss of reality".

Construction experts, who were hastily consulted, reassure: If the man carries out his threat and flies into the ECB tower in a sports plane, no serious damage is to be expected.

But there is concern that the unsafe pilot could lose control of the plane and fall into a crowd.

The wings of the motor glider come dangerously close to the skyscrapers several times.

When it glides low over the Zeil, people on the shopping street panic.

Two police and border police helicopters try to land the motor glider.

At the behest of the Federal Ministry of Defense, two Bundeswehr combat aircraft take off in Neuburg an der Donau.

Even today, many Frankfurters remember the noise that the phantom jets produce in the sky over the city.

“Everything is possible since New York”

On the ground, all possible precautions are taken in case of a crash.

The theater across from the ECB interrupts a performance and brings the visitors to safety inside the building, Frankfurt Airport closes operations, and finally all bridges over the Main and the entire city center are closed.

At the main train station, police officers ask travelers to go to the underground B level.

Rumors are circulating that planes have also been hijacked in other cities: "Everything's possible since New York," says a passer-by.

The fears are not true, however.

As dusk turns to darkness around 5 p.m., the pilot completes his final loop and turns to the southwest.

Shortly thereafter, he lands at Frankfurt Airport, where he is immediately arrested.

His pistol turns out to be a stun gun, and flight operations are resumed.

Relief is spreading in downtown Frankfurt.

In the days that followed, politicians discussed the conditions under which random flyers were shot down and how small airfields could be better secured.

An incident like that of 20 years ago has never happened in Frankfurt.