The Man Who Posed For Selfie With EgyptAir Hijacker

26-year-old Benjamin Innes from Leeds took a photograph with his captor - Seif al-Din Mustafa - during a six-hour hijacking episode in which Mr Mustafa held up an EgyptAir flight.

Mr Innes was one of the last captives to be released.

He can be seen smiling broadly as the plane sat on the runway of Cyprus's Larnaca airport.

Friends and family of Mr Innes said it was typical of him to do something like this. 

"Only Ben could get a selfie! #proud" tweeted Sarah Innes, a relative.

Photo: Twitter

Friends from the University of York, where Mr Innes graduated with a degree in environmental science in 2011, said they were not shocked by the photograph.

"This is not a surprise at all," the friend said. "Ben is a wild man and this is totally in character for him. He was a big rugby guy and very into his banter and didn't have much respect for authority."

Mustafa, a 59-year-old Egyptian man, sparked alerts across the planet when he told the cabin crew of EgyptAir flight 181 that he had a bomb and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing at Cyprus’s Larnaca airport.

Over the six hours he demanded to see his Cypriot former wife. One Egyption official summed it up: "He’s not a terrorist, he’s an idiot."

The drama began when Mustafa quietly informed the cabin crew that he was strapped with explosives and threatened to bring down the flight if it didn’t divert away to Cyprus.

Cabin crew collected passports from the 55 passengers but didn't identify the hijacker to the other travelers.

After the plane touched down, passengers watched police sharpshooters gathering around the airport.

After an hour on the runway, Mustafa released most of his hostages and let file down the stairs and into the arms of authorities. Only the crew and five Westerners remained onboard.

Eventually Mustafa himself stepped blinking into the Mediterranean sunlight and raised his hands as armed police swept forward.

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