Man asked for selfie with plane hijacker
A passenger once asked for a selfie with a man who hijacked the plane he was on.
The Brit has spoken out since the incident and revealed exactly why he chose to snap a picture with the hijacker.
Back in 2016, an Egyptair flight from HBE Airport in Alexandria, Egypt to Cairo Airport, also in Egypt, was hijacked by a man who was allegedly wearing a suicide belt.
The short-haul flight only had 556 passengers on board, in addition to members of crew and one member of the airline's security team.
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The hijacker demanded that the flight be diverted to Cyprus, threatening to blow the plane up if the pilot didn't do as he said.
Thankfully, the flight landed safely at Larnaca Airport, Cyprus, with all passengers set free except for four, as well as the entire flight crew.
Among the four passengers that were kept hostage by the hijacker, later revealed to be Seif Eldin Mustafa, was a Brit named Ben Innes, who oddly snapped a photo with the him.
Why though?
26-year-old Innes was a health and safety auditor in the oil industry who resided in Aberdeen, and was onboard the plane for five hours alongside the three other passengers and flight crew after the plane landed at Larnaca.
Mustafa reportedly diverted the plane to see his ex-wife who lived in Cyprus.
During that time, while negotiations were underway between officials and the alleged hijacker, Innes decided to get a photograph with Mustafa which later went viral.
His motive? He wanted 'a chance to get a closer look' at the supposed explosive device.
In an interview with The Sun (via CBS), Innes admitted he's not completely 'sure why [he] did it'.
The Brit continued: "After about half an hour at Larnaca I asked for a photo with him as we were sitting around waiting. I thought, why not?
"[...] I just threw caution to the wind while trying to stay cheerful in the face of adversity. I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing to lose anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it."
Innes explained he got one of the cabin crew to translate for him to ask the hijacker if he could take a selfie.
"He just shrugged OK, so I stood by him and smiled for the camera while a stewardess did the snap," Innes said. "It has to be the best selfie ever."
But what about the hijacker?
Following the five-hour stand-off, Mustafa was arrested and his alleged suicide belt was found to be fake, with the president of Cyprus saying it was not a terrorist incident.
A legal process later took place in Cyprus before he was extradited to Egypt, where he was tried and eventually convicted.
He is currently serving a life sentence in prison.
Topics: Terrorism, Viral, Social Media, World News
Joshua Nair