The man who took a photograph with a hijacker during a hostage situation said he had no regrets about taking the picture, which went viral as a "Hijack Selfie."
"It was a very thought-out process," said Ben Innes in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Innes said he does not speak Arabic, so he tried to think of ways to interact with the hijacker, "of which taking a selfie was one."
When he returned home, he was met by his mother, reported
the Guardian. "I don’t know why you did it," she said.
The flight was carrying 72 people to Cairo when hijacker Seif Eddin Mustafa ordered it to land in Cyprus. Passengers and crew were held hostage for six hours at Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus. After the standoff, Mustafa was taken into custody.
Mustafa’s ex-wife told
the Associated Press that he was "extremely dangerous."
When the photo was taken, Innes told Good Morning America he was thinking, "I hope this pose looks good."
About why he took the photo, he said, "I wanted to interact with the hijacker. I wanted him to understand that I was a human. I wasn’t just a nameless, faceless victim.
He said his primary reason for taking the photo was to show his mother, if he was killed, that he was "unfazed, unchallenged, and enjoying the situation I’m in to the best of my ability."
A member of the cabin crew, Naira Atef, also took a photo with the hijacker, reported
The Telegraph.
"I salute your indefatigableness," said one tweet when the photo went viral. Another said Innes would be a hero, "if he had taken pic & sent to cops during hijacking. But he’s an idiot bragging to friends."
"I have no reqrets whatsoever," Innes said, about calling his photo "the best selfie ever."
His mother, however, pointed out to the Telegraph that the photo is not a selfie. "You can clearly see that it is not Ben who is taking the picture."
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