81 passengers boarded a cross-country flight with no clue that amongst them was a man allegedly strapped with a bomb to his body. When the man hijacked the plane, a flight attendant and United Kingdom citizen courageously asked him for a selfie.
The Hijacking
Seif Eldin Mustafa hijacked EgyptAir’s Flight 181 originally routed from Burg el-Arab Airport to Cairo, Egypt. He threatened to detonate the bomb if the aircraft did not divert to Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. Upon landing, the hijacker threw a four-page letter written in Arabic onto the runway. He demanded it to be delivered to his Cypriot ex-wife.
When authorities began negotiations with Mustafa, he released 71 passengers, leaving behind three civilians, four crew members, and two pilots. The hostages included 26-year-old Ben Innes and flight attendant Niera Atef. The projected 28-minute flight then turned into a 6-hour drawn-out standoff between Mustafa and police.
The Viral Photos
Co-pilot Hamd al-Qaddah, 32, said that he was continuously sending updates on WhatsApp to the Cyprus and Cairo police. The co-pilot credits Atef with asking the hijacker for photos.
Health and safety auditor Ben Innes widely grinned in the viral picture with the plane hijacker. Atef also took a picture with Mustafa, but these images were not just a memory keepsake. It was part of their plan to trick the hijacker and send the photos to local authorities for further inspection.
Innes had a similar plan to the flight attendant and stated that he wanted to get a closer look at the bomb because he had “nothing to lose anyway.” He wanted to know if the hijacker carried any other weapons and grasp a better sense of the situation. The passengers tried to de-escalate the situation with a cheerful attitude.
“I wanted him to understand I was human, that I wasn’t just a nameless, faceless victim. That I was a real living person.”
Ben Innes in an interview with ABC News
Mustafa’s Surrender and Arrest
After Mustafa realized that the counter-terrorism police were not going to comply with his requests, he released the hostages from the plane and then surrendered with his hands up.
The Secretary of the Cypriot Foreign Ministry said Mustafa showed signs of severe “mental instability” upon his arrest. Cypriot authorities later found out that the explosive belt he wore was actually fake and made out of cell phones taped together. The hijacker was trying to get attention from his estranged ex-wife, not inflict harm on the passengers.
“He’s not a terrorist, he’s an idiot. Terrorists are crazy, but they aren’t stupid. This guy is.”
An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official in statements to the public
Erin Bowen, an aviation psychology expert, criticized Innes for his actions. She expressed that the 26-year-old should not be celebrated, but reprimanded for interfering with a hostage situation. Social media users praised Innes for not caring and getting a picture that will go down in history as the “best selfie ever.”
