A British man attained international fame when he ended up clicking “the Selfie of a life time” with the hijacker of EgyptAir jet. He shot the selfie in the midst of the hostage drama in Cyprus; an act he said was aimed at staying “cheerful”.
The selfie man, Benjamin Innes was one of the last captives to be released by the hijacker Seif al-Din Mustafa during Tuesday’s six-hour hijacking episode. Innes claimed that he took the picture to stay cheerful.
The photograph shows Mr. Innes smiling broadly as he stands next to Mustafa in the cabin of the hijacked Airbus 320 as it sat on the runway of Cyprus’s Larnaca airport. “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. I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing to lose anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it,” Mr. Innes said.
Innes was one of the 62 passengers on board the ill fated EgyptAir flight which was on its way to Cairo from Alexandria when Mustafa seized control and threatened to detonate a bomb belt, which was later discovered to be a fake. Mustafa forced the Airbus A320 to land in Larnaca.
Innes recalled that the panicking passengers calmed down once the plane landed and Mustafa allowed women and children to leave. Later, Mustafa disembarked and surrendered to the police.
When produced before court on Wednesday in Larnaca, a judge ordered Mostafa to be detained for eight days.
Mustafa, aged 58, had earlier told police that he diverted the flight to see his Cypriot ex-wife and children. “What’s someone supposed to do when he hasn’t seen his wife and children in 24 years and the Egyptian government won’t let you?” Mostafa told authorities.
Police informed the court that Mustafa — described by officials as “psychologically unstable” — faces possible charges of hijacking, kidnapping, reckless and threatening behaviour, and breaches of the anti-terror law.
Egypt has asked Cyprus to extradite Mustafa. Egypt’s interior ministry said Mustafa had a long criminal record but had finished serving a one-year prison term in March 2015.
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