Man Who Posed For Selfie With Plane Hijacker Explains Why He Did It

Ben Innes, is an infamous Britisher who took a selfie with an alleged plane hijacker and explained his reason for doing this.

Back in 2016, Innes was a passenger with 55 other people on an Egyptair flight from HBE Airport, Alexandria to Cairo Airport when it was hijacked by a man who appeared to have a suicide belt on.

The cabin crew desperately tried to negotiate with the man who was called Seif Eldin Mustafa, meanwhile, Ben got up out of his seat and asked Mustafa for a photo.

Mustafa reportedly diverted the plane to Larnaca, Cyprus so that he could see his ex-wife who lived there.

When the plane landed, all but four passengers and the flight crew were allowed to disembark from the aircraft.

Ben, who was 26 at the time of the incident, was one of those four passengers who had to stay onboard for five hours while negotiations were ongoing.

It all ended well as Ben and all the other people were able to leave the plane safely but there was one question that everyone wondered: Why did he take a selfie with the hijacker?

In initial interviews, Ben admitted that he wasn't 'sure why [he] did it,' and described it as a moment of being 'cheerful in the face of adversity.'

Speaking to The Sun, he proudly announced: "It has to be the best selfie ever."

Since then, Ben has spoken to ABC News about what was going through his head when he decided to get up and speak to Mustafa.

In that interview, he insisted that he actually thought through the whole idea and thought that maybe taking a picture with the hijacker would help

"I don't speak Arabic. The majority of the interaction was taking place in Arabic," he explained.

"In order for me to get a better understanding of the situation and to engage with this person, I thought of several ways in which I could further interact with him, of which taking a selfie was one."

He continued: "Believe me, it was a very thought-through process."

"I wanted to interact with the hijacker. I wanted him to understand that I was a human, I was doing human things, that I wasn't just a nameless, faceless victim. That I was a real, living person.

"I also wanted to get a better look at the device, at him. I needed to understand if he had any other weapons, if there were any other hijackers I hadn't seen who were with him."

Asked if he had any regrets in calling it 'the best selfie ever', Ben replied: "In terms of regret, I have no regrets whatsoever about my actions on that airplane."

He also said that he also did this for his mom who was on the plane with him and she warned him not to do anything that might have drawn attention to him.

"I explained to her that there was a whole host of reasons that I wanted that picture to be taken.

"Not least so she knew that if I died, I died unafraid. And I died how I lived. Unfazed, unchallenged, and enjoying whatever situation I'm in to the best of my ability."

Mustafa is reported as having surrendered to authorities after the five-hour stand-off.

It was later reported by the officials that the hijacker's suicide belt was fake and the president of Cyprus resolved it was not a terrorist incident despite Mustafa's motives remaining unknown.