A man who posed for a picture with an alleged hijacker wearing a suspected suicide belt has said he was trying to get a better look at the device.
The image of Ben Innes, grinning next to his captor on the Egyptair flight, has gone viral on social media.
Mr Innes, based in Aberdeen, also told the Sun newspaper he wanted to "stay cheerful in the face of adversity".
The alleged hijacker was arrested after a stand-off in Cyprus and the suicide belt was found to be fake.
Oil worker Mr Innes, who is originally from Leeds, was a passenger on the Airbus A320 on Tuesday when a man, named by Cypriot officials as Seif Eldin Mustafa, was said to have threatened to blow up the aircraft.
The picture was taken during a five-hour standoff after the plane was diverted to Larnaca airport.
Mr Innes told the Sun: "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."
He said the photo, which was taken by a member of the cabin crew, was the "best selfie ever".
The plane was carrying at least 55 passengers, including 26 foreigners, on an EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo.
Most of those on board were freed shortly after the plane landed at Larnaca but the hijacker held seven people hostage before the incident came to a peaceful conclusion.
Mr Innes said part of his motivation was to find out more about the suspected explosive belt and whether it was fitted with a "dead man's trigger" that would detonate the device if the hijacker was incapacitated.
The alleged hijacker's motives were unclear but the Cypriot president said the incident was not terrorism-related.
credit bbc.co.uk
The problem with Ben Innes; he`s a foot taller then the sandmonkey and stronger. And he was standing 10 inches away from him, both were just standing there to take an idiotic picture. So if Ben had a working brain, he would simply have grabbed the guys arms and forced him to not move until the police arrived. Unfortunatly, Ben is one of those morons who sees somehting and thinks "oh I have to post this on facebook!" instead of reacting. So I give Ben 0 out of 6 possible stars.
ReplyDelete