Cyprus – A video has emerged showing moments inside the EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo that was hijacked and forced to land in Cyprus on Tuesday by a man with a fake suicide belt.
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The footage shows the moment British passenger Ben Innes has his photograph taken with hijacker Seif Al Deen Mostafa.
While the plane was still airborne, flight attendants and the pilots said they tried to speak informally to Mostafa, offering him drinks and making small talk. The pilot, Amr Al-Gammal, said the hijacker even let him choose whether to land in Turkey, Greece or the nearest choice, Cyprus.
The atmosphere grew sufficiently informal and relaxed that one of the English passengers, 26-year-old health and safety inspector Ben Innes, posed for a wide-grinning photo alongside the self-billed bomber.
“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,” Innes was quoted as telling The Sun newspaper in London.
“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 was quoted as saying.
Some fellow hostages said they thought Innes had been a reckless imbecile.
Banchetti told La Repubblica newspaper in Rome that he’d wanted to slap Innes across the face.
“How do you go up to him that way and take a photo of him? ‘Are you a fool?’ I said in English,” Banchetti recalled.
Seif Eddin Mustafa, 59, was arrested by Cypriot police Tuesday without physically harming a soul.
Mustafa faces preliminary charges including hijacking, illegal possession of explosives, kidnapping and threats to commit violence.
What a fat doofus. Obviously a drunken Englishman.