A 26-year-old Briton hostage aboard EgyptAir flight managed to have his picture taken with the hijacker.
Ben Innes was among the last one freed at the Larnaca airport of Cyprus, where the six-hour negotiation happened between officials and hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa.
Innes mustered the courage to ask for a picture with Mustafa, thinking that he would not lose much anyway in case the threat of the suicide bomber is real.
"I'm not sure why I did it, I just threw caution to the wind while trying to stay cheerful in the face of adversity," Innes, a health and safety inspector from Leeds said.
The picture shows a smiling Innes with Mustafa wearing a suicide belt, which later on was found to be just a dummy.
Photo of the week:
Passanger Ben Innes posing for a selfie with plane hijacker Seif Eldin Mustafa. pic.twitter.com/PmLH4M6692— Michel Eléftériadès (@elefteriades) March 29, 2016
The hijacked EgyptAir domestic flight MS181 from Alexandria to Cairo had 56 passengers and six crew members. According to Egypt's civil aviation ministry, the Airbus A320 had 26 foreign passengers, out of which are eight Americans, four Dutch nationals, four Britons, two Greeks, two French nationals, two Belgians, a Syrian and an Italian.
Mustafa stated the reason for the hijacking was his attempt to reach his ex-wife. After landing at Larnaca airport, Mustafa asked officials to deliver a four-page message to his Cypriot ex-wife or he will set off the bomb attached to his body.
This hijacking, although not a terrorist attack, raises concerns about why a "mentally unstable" man was able to pass through the Alexandria airport while carrying an explosive-like device. Especially when securities are supposed to be on heightened alert after an airport in Brussels was attacked by suicide bombers.
The hijacking incident is another blow to the Egyptian airline, which is plagued with several militant attacks since 2013. The country is yet to recover from the October airline bombing.
Photo: Mark Harkin | Flickr
