A British man who posed smiling for a photo with a hijacker on board an EgyptAir flight has said he did it to take "a closer look" at the apparent explosives belt, adding: "I figured if his bomb was real I'd nothing to lose anyway."


Ben Innes, 26, was one of three passengers and four crew held to the end of a hostage siege, after Seif Eldin Mustafa hijacked the EgyptAir flight bound for Cairo from Alexandria and forced it to be redirected to Cyprus.


The plane landed at Larnaca airport, where Innes was snapped standing next to Mustafa -- who was still wearing what he claimed to be an explosives belt -- in the cabin of the Airbus 320.The bomb was later found to be fake.Innes is a health and safety auditor from Leeds, living in Aberdeen. He was returning home on a business trip when flight MS181 was seized.


He spoke to the Sun about his motivations."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.


Photo credit: Paul Smith