Ben Innes posed a selfie with the Egyptian hijacker. Screengrab from Paul Smith (via Twitter)
A passenger from the hijacked EgyptAir flight MS181 captured a ‘once in a blue moon’ opportunity – he took a selfie with the armed suspect.
Ben Innes, a 26-year-old health and safety auditor from Leeds, United Kingdom, admitted that he posed with the hijacker, identified as Seif El Din Mustafa, to test if Mustafa’s explosives belt was real or fake.
Innes was among the 62 passengers on board the plane when it was hijacked on Tuesday (March 26) while enroute from Alexandria to Cairo. He was returning from a business trip when the incident happened.
The suspect had ordered the pilots to detour instead to Cyprus and then released the frightened passengers upon arrival at Larnaca airport. But he detained Innes and two other passengers as he made his demands.
The demands included talking to his Cypriot ex-wife, a dialogue with officials of the European Unions, and the release of women political prisoners in Egypt.
Later, authorities unraveled that the bomb wrapped around Mustafa was proven to be fake. Mustafa then surrendered to the police, but before he was taken away, Innes snapped the selfie. He then ran to the tarmac together with the two other passengers detained earlier at the plane and sent the photo to his friends.
Innes’ selfie with Mustafa stirred humorous response from Twitter users.
Screengrab from Man United Hub (via Twitter)
Screengrab from Craig Meechan (via Twitter)
Screengrab from Wajahat Ali (via Twitter)