This Guy Got A Photo With The Hijacker

The world was gripped yesterday by the hijacking of EgyptAir Flight 181 and the subsequent standoff between police and the hijacker. Images of tense scenes, terrified hostages and a hijacker with a potential explosive device filled people's minds as they tried to imagine what must be happening on board.

 

Very few people imagined that one of the hostages would be posing for a picture with the hijacker, later identified as Seif El Din Mustafa. The picture in question was captured as negotiations were ongoing, showing the hijacker looking oddly at-ease and still wearing a fake explosive belt, standing next to a cheesily-grinning passenger. Con Air this is not.

The hostage in question has been named as 26-year-old British passenger Ben Innes. He sent the image to a friend in the middle of the hijacking, painting a very different picture to what many had imagined would be a tense and fretful standoff. Speaking toThe Sun, he said “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."

Maybe Innes wanted to humanise his captor, to show the world that Seif El Din Mustafa was a hijacker with a heart, a man who would go to any lengths to win back his lost love. Or perhaps Innes just didn’t care. Either way, this is a strange image for humanity to try to reconcile. Don’t judge us too harshly, future generations, this was clearly an Instagram moment.

 

Source: http://bokeh.digitalrev.com/article/taking-a-photo-with-your-hijacker