British ‘Hostage’ Is Internet Star After Taking Picture With EgyptAir Hijacker

A British hostage had a bit of unexpected fun with the man who hijacked a plane this week.

The hijacker, Seifedeen Mustafa, had hijacked an EgyptAir flight with a device that he claimed was a bomb. In the end his bomb turned out to be a hoax, and his actions seemingly related to his estranged wife, but he did succeed in getting the Cairo-bound flight rerouted to Cyrpus. After a six-hour standoff with authorities, he eventually released all hostages and surrendered.

One of the final hostages to be let go, 26-year-old Ben Innes, apparently decided that he wanted a souvenir from the experience so he had a photo snapped of himself and his would-be captor before disembarking from the plane.

In explaining his actions to The Guardian, Innes said, “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 (had) nothing to lose anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it. I got one of the cabin crew to translate for me and asked him if I could do a selfie with him. He just shrugged OK, so I stood by him and smiled for the camera while a stewardess did the snap.”

Innes also elaborated on his release, saying, “After about half an hour at Larnaca I asked for a photo with him as we were sitting around waiting. I thought, why not? If he blows us all up it won’t matter anyway.”

The photo went viral after Innes apparently shared it with some of his friends over the messaging application Whatsapp.