An Aberdeen man has posted a picture of himself with the hijacker who sparked mass panic when, wearing a suicide belt, he took control of a passenger plane this morning.
TWMA employee Ben Innes took the picture at Cyprus’ Larnaca airport before posting it on his Facebook page for his friends back home in the north-east to see.
The hijacker, identified by Cypriot officials as Seif Eldin Mustafa, forced EgyptAir flight MS181, due to fly from Alexandria to Cairo, to land at Larnaca airport in Cyprus early this morning.
The plane was carrying 56 passengers, including 26 foreigners, on an EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo when Mustafa claimed to have an explosive belt.
Most of those on board were freed shortly after the plane landed at Larnaca airport on the Mediterranean island at 8.50am, before the hijacker held seven people hostage for a number of hours.
Unfazed by the tension on the tarmac at Larnaca airport, Ben who is believed to have been one of the final seven hostages, managed to take the picture with Mustafa, standing inside the aircraft before he was arrested by the authorities.
An Egyptian official later described Mustafa “not a terrorist, he’s an idiot”.
The photograph has now gone viral online, with one person who shared the picture, asking: “What to do when the hijacker has a bomb vest A: scream B: run C: take a selfie. I’m going with C.”
Another described it as “the selfie to end all selfies”.
