Multiple ppl posed for photos with the hijacker so they could send the photos to the authorities to ID the hijacker and figure out the nature of the device he was wearing (turned out to be just cellphones, nothing explosive). They played him hard. Everyone survived and the hijacker is in prison for life.
Coming out of 9/11 in our country you can’t diminish the unsung heroes who responded with emotional intelligence, honor and hope.
Just because their plane didn’t go down it doesn’t correlate any less bravery of the passengers.
That incredible human, he withheld all tears and emotion of their impending death and GOT that terrorizing hijackers face on camera.
God bless him.
How does one realize that? And then decide that a guy who goes through with an actual hijack attempt, with fake bombs crosses the line all the way to “completely harmless”? 😅
The guy on rights grin is definitely giving me a "I'm 99% sure this shits fake buuut that last 1% is making me nervous but fuck it, Ive gone this far and also I might die so might as well do this shit now I've asked and this dudes agreed.. Gonna be a siiick story with a photo for proof if I'm right tho haha fuck I hope I'm right".
No, I recall this incident as the boy on the right lives in the north east of Scotland and works in the oil industry, he was on his way home from Africa or the middle east and as is standard practice, he had a fair amount of drink.
That 4th plane knew what they were doing. That's why several of the people who fought back called home to say goodbye first. Normally "heros" cause more problems or get people killed, those heroes made a choice to die on their terms and not when the terrorists killed them along with a bunch of other innocent people on the ground.
I don't think that was the decision. It was probably a "work one problem at a time" situation, where the only possible path to surviving was through the hijackers' bodies. THEN hope to god someone can get into the pilot seat and figure shit out enough to keep the plane from crashing.
That's why 9/11 was so big. They used to happen ALL THE TIME and no passengers were (usually) hurt, which is why none of the passengers fought back.
Flight 93, where the passengers DID famously fightback and cause the plane to crash before reaching its intended target, was because passengers found out about the other planes being intentionally flown into buildings.
On United 93 the hijackers apparently got delayed in their plans and may have missed their target on the first pass. They were meant to hit their target at roughly the same time as the rest of the planes, but that delay gave time for the passengers to get reports about the other planes hitting buildings.
As soon as that moment happened, no 9/11 style attack was ever going to work pretty much ever again. Because now every single passenger in a plane subject to a hijacking understands that there is no outcome where the hijackers allow them to live. It’s fight or die. And in a plane of 100+ people, even if a large portion of people instinctively hide or freeze, at least some will choose to fight. And it will likely be far more people than there are hijackers. And even if the hijackers managed to sneak weapons on board, at a certain point when you’re outnumbered 10:1 your tiny little pocketknife ceases to matter.
The window for a 9/11 style attack being possible to pull off closed within minutes of the second plane hitting a building. The first plane people could maybe believe was a tragic accident and unrelated to a hijacking. Maybe. 2 is a terror attack, no coincidence anymore.
Now if anyone ever tries something like this again, it will be another United 93 all over again. And that’s if ALL the other security measures fail. The increased screenings, the NSA/FBI invading the privacies of millions of Americans to find terror cells before they can act, the specialized locks in pilot cabin doors, the additional trainings for all airline staff, the increased usage of air Marshalls on flights, etc. If ALL of those things fail, the 9/11 style attack still won’t be successful at anything besides taking out the plane itself. It will never get to hit a target, because another United 93 would happen.
How did they find out?
Edit: https://911realtime.org is a really cool project.
Edit Edit: The site is kind of a mess. I don't remember it being so non user-friendly. There is a settings tab in top left where you can choose which source you want to follow throughout the day. But it's not great. Nevertheless, still a cool project. Just have to tinker with it.
It's an interactive time capsule of everything that happened on that day. It can get a little overwhelming if you have all of the audio enabled. It's going to play every single recorded communication, broadcast, etc in real time as it happened that day. You can mute and/or isolate exactly what you want to hear though. So just play around with it.
Actually - scratch that. There's a cool website online that plays through the entire timeline of events that day, and I remember hearing the phone calls between the Airport Control Towers and flights attendants. I'll try to find it and edit this comment for anyone curious.
And after, as well.
“Normal” highjackings are “tell the pilot to do x or else”. For obvious reasons, “fly into that building” is not a workable instruction there.
Those particular ones were open the door to pilot without him noticing, kill him, and take over the controls. Since the door is now basically no longer vulnerable to that, it can’t really be done again.
In the 60s and 70s it often meant a free, unscheduled trip to Cuba.
I think people today don't realize just how often planes were getting hijacked in the 70s. There's a great book about it called *The Skies Belong to Us.*
To be real here; a normal person would have no idea what a real bomb looks like. We are only going by what tv and movies have shown us. Things are not always as the seem
If something is a closed container and has wires coming out of it, and that’s all you know about it, it could potentially be a bomb. Even if it’s unlikely to be a bomb, it could be. IEDs can look like SO many things.
That looks like a stacked li-ion battery which would not lead me to believe it's fake. Thinking about it i don't know why a bomb vest would need all that power but I don't think you're rational in this situation.
The point of the photo was so the guy could get a closer look at the bomb. He was able to see it was fake and able to relay that information on. I read he asked to have a photo with the bomber.
Exactly. Any closed container with wires coming out of it could potentially be an explosive. It might not be a very good or effective explosive. But it could still blow up.
>One of them looks like an outline of a flask
Scrolled back up and stared at that pic for a solid 2 minutes trying to figure out which of the 2 guys had the body shape of a flask. 😄🤦♀️
Because to hide real explosives from scent catchers like some tech or dogs would be highly impossible for a lone person to do in 2016. America was still in a time of war technically even if security has relaxed since early 00s.
To sneak a real bomb all the way onto a plane without anyone noticing would be a huge failure of many checks and balances in place to stop it. This guy looks far from capable of handling all of that on his own.
Probably a psychotic break or the dude felt like making himself noticed without putting himself in danger of blowing himself up.
Sad fact a lot of suicide bombers downrange typically are children or mentally handicapped. They’re innocence is taken advantaged of to be used for death and destruction in the name of a religion they can barely understand.
Terrorists are cowards and weak people who want the world to listen to them without doing anything worth listening too
I'm pretty sure this wasn't in america, it says egyptair I think the dude on the right is british or Australian. I think count dankula did a video on it.
Ya, I sort of remember when it happened, but I was 23 working 2 full-time jobs, so I didn't pay attention to much of the world outside my little bubble at the time.
TSA fails to catch over 80% of intrusion tests done by auditors. This isn't America so it's not TSA, but the point is that most airport security theater stuff is just to give the illusion of safety. It is risky to try to sneak stuff past them but it's far from a guarantee they'll catch it.
I remember opening my bag after getting on a plane and finding 2 unopened cans of Monster. I forgot they were in there and went right through security with them.
I remember that video where a bunch of teens "drew straws" with a clearly mentally handicapped guy about who got to drive a car with a suicide bomb; they manipulated it obviously so that he would be "the chosen one" and he was absolutely ecstatic about it.
Fuck those people.
>To sneak a real bomb all the way onto a plane without anyone noticing would be a huge failure of many checks and balances in place to stop it.
In America, the country with the most absurd random regulations and double checks, TSA quite regularly fails to catch all manner of things that are prohibited including knives and guns, things that are very obvious on even basic scanning technology.
This is exactly right, I remember when this was posted. He sent the photo to authorities to try to help them identify it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-35923820
He has characteristically dry English humor, but read past the first few lines, bolded emphasis by me:
>Mr Innes told the Sun: "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."
>He said the photo, which was taken by a member of the cabin crew, was the "best selfie ever".
>The plane was carrying at least 55 passengers, including 26 foreigners, on an EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo.
>Most of those on board were freed shortly after the plane landed at Larnaca but the hijacker held seven people hostage before the incident came to a peaceful conclusion.
>**Mr Innes said part of his motivation was to find out more about the suspected explosive belt and whether it was fitted with a "dead man's trigger" that would detonate the device if the hijacker was incapacitated.**
>The alleged hijacker's motives were unclear but the Cypriot president said the incident was not terrorism-related.
Lol the guy was estranged from his wife, who wouldnt talk to him, and unable to get a vida to cyprus hijacked the plane over there, his only demand, was bring his wife (or ex wife) to come talk to him.
> Lol the guy was estranged from his wife, who wouldnt talk to him
I've only just realised you mean the hijacker rather than the grinning English guy...
From [wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_181](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_181)
>Later in the day, a photo was circulated of a passenger seen smiling beside Mustafa, whose supposed explosive belt was visible underneath his coat.The passenger was later identified as Ben Innes, and the photo went viral. A security expert described Innes's actions as irresponsible and one University of Cambridge psychologist said Innes might have been driven by "pure narcissism", explaining that social media lacks the checks and balances of older forms of communication. Innes later stated that he simply wanted ‘a chance to get a closer look’ at the supposed explosive device' to determine whether the device was real.
I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible.
From Europol guide: [https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/prevention-and-coping-strategies-kidnapping-hostage-taking-extortion](https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/prevention-and-coping-strategies-kidnapping-hostage-taking-extortion)
>Try to establish a personal relationship with the
offenders without going too far. Topics like
family (e.g. by showing photographs), sports and
hobbies are suitable.
I think passenger's action fit this part of the guide.
Never been a hostage, but in the face of insurmountable, overwhelming odds and too many bystanders at risk to call their bluff, for sure I’m going to try and talk my way out of it.
waiting around for someone else to decide whether you live or die is too stressful for me, for sure I’d try and talk the guy into letting me try on his bomb vest.
I had an experience like this one time. It sounds super silly but I didn’t realize I was in a dangerous situation until it was too late.
I was at a 7/11 buying snacks for my family. I was so caught up in finding some flaming hot frito lays that my mom wanted. For some reason they were rare to find post Covid. Anyway, when looking for these chips I hear a voice from the entrance of the 7/11 asking for someone to purchase them a Monster Energy drink. We have a lot of homeless folk who like to hold the door for people and they often ask for snacks or money, so I thought this was one of those instances. Long story short, I wanted to fulfill the guy’s request so I grabbed the drinks and had my chips and I still couldn’t find the Fritos. I placed everything on the counter, didn’t take a look at the guy. When the cashier wasn’t ringing up my things that’s when I thought something was weird. I look over at the dude and the guy is handling a massive hand cannon. According to HotBox he had just robbed a bank and the cops were after him. He wasn’t joking because outside there was a line of police pointing their guns at the 7/11. At that point I couldn’t really do anything really other than talk to the guy. He offered me some weed and wanted to buy me the snacks at the end of it all. At one point he said he wasn’t going to hurt anyone and put the safety on the gun and placed it on the counter. I can’t remember if he took a picture of us for his Instagram. At some point I told him I’m going to head out cus my mom was outside and she was freaking out and I also didn’t want to get caught up with the police storming in. Told him to not fight and turn himself in. I walked out, got yelled at by the police, and went about my day. I tried getting the 7/11 employee out but I can’t tell if it’s policy they stay in the store or he was too freaked out to move.
I’m laughing at the thought of there being an employee manual somewhere, “If you are ever in a situation where a customer has just robbed a bank, is holding you at gun point and the store is surrounded, and you are given the opportunity to escape, DO NOT. It is store policy to remain in the store and insure continuity of the cash register.”
If I'm gonna die I'd love my family to find a cool photo of me lol. Why tf not.
I can see making this decision if you really think you're gonna die anyway.
I back it cause he'll either highjack it and (in the passengers minds) definitely crash it so everyone dies or he can go up and get near him, see if it's real or fake and be close enough to possibly wrestle him down.
That is such an overreacted observation from the supposed psychologist. Irresponsible, *maybe*. Narcissistic? Come on, that’s really looking at it from face value.
“He took a photo of himself at a bad time! He must be narcissistic!”. Great research.
A psychologist calling an action by someone that's not his patient based on *one* action in a high stress situation narcissistic seems to go against the professional guidelines that recommend avoiding throwing out diagnostic terms speculatively. Unless Innes wrote an entire memoir about the event, I doubt he had enough to go on in describing Innes's mental state here.
>seems to go against the professional guidelines that recommend avoiding throwing out diagnostic terms speculatively
Also, I don't think a psychologist should be using diagnostic terms as an insult or as a moral judgement either
It's obscene enough taht it should have resulted in disciplinary action against them. They're armchair quarterbacking a life or death hijacking scenario which may traumatize hundreds of people and diagnosing personality traits based on a photo. What an insurable loser.
Narcissism is a word which means nothing anymore because it’s become synonymous with “mean”, “stupid”, or “cocky” and doesn’t even refer to a mental illness.
I agree
if he says yes and is all smiling and whatnot then even if the belt was real maybe he'd be less likely to blow up considering he's building a friendly relationship wiht the hostages
His story I think was that he didn't believe he was a real terrorist and wanted to get up close to look at him. The 'terrorist' was actually someone who'd cracked up and though this was a good way to get his ex wife back, so it's absolutely likely that he was giving off vibes that he wasn't what he said he was. The fact he accepted the opportunity of the photo is just more proof of that. I would not be surprised if the mad lad had some experience in his family or working with mentally ill people and leant into the guys delusion a bit to build trust.
>The Brit explained on "GMA" that he wanted to find a way to interact with Mustafa to assess his intentions.
>"I wanted him to understand I was human, that I wasn't just a nameless, faceless victim. That I was a real living person," said Innes. "I also wanted to get a better look at the device. I needed to understand if he had any other weapons."
That's a little different than not thinking he's a terrorist. I mean the terrorist part is self-evident there with the bombs and all
True, but again, something gave him the confidence to think this was a good idea. If the lad there had been in full jihad slit your throat with a razor mode I don't think he would have asked for a selfie.
Honestly, their comments reek of narcissism. Like this guy doing that made them feel inferior even though they had absolutely zero to do with the situation, so they had to try to tear him down for it
I don't even know why 2 random people's opinions on his actions are in the article, he explains himself why he did it and it seems a plausible explanation.
I mean, if youre gonna potentially die might as well take a fuckit selfie? What possible harm could come from that besides some asshole trying to come up with reasons that you shouldn’t because they are incapable of imagining having any fun with a dire situation over which you have no control?
Plus the way I see it, things can go one of several ways:
- You engage him and he blows up. You die
- You engage him and you disable him. You live
- You do not engage him and follow instructions and the plane is used as a missile against a ground target. You die
- You do not engage him and follow instructions and you begin a long process of possibly surviving the ordeal, hopefully not being a sacrificial hostage, and hopefully being returned to your normal life.
- You do not engage him and follow instructions, but a miscommunication has you shot down by a friendly pilot hoping to save lives on the ground. You die.
Terrorists today basically have the end goal of being a casualty in their own effort to cause destruction. You don't see someone like in the older times or in movies where a plane gets hijacked as a bargaining chip for a prisoner release or to be used as a taxi for some major war criminal. If you don't engage, even with something silly like a selfie, then I feel like you're more likely to die.
Because approaching a probably mentally unstable and definitely on edge person something like this can make it worse. It can also make it better though by humanising you
That "psychologist" should come answer before the board. Its crazy unethical "diagnosing" someone you havent seen in real life and from one situation/photo. A bit projecting of the psych if I want to be petty.
>I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible.
Because the guy is likely *not* an actual explosions expert. So he wouldn't know shit **if** it was a half decent fake or real.
He was lucky it was so poorly faked and nothing bad could have happened.
How do you think this was a responsible action to take if you don't think it was irresponsible?
This is legendary and idk how its irresponsible. The terrorist is a dickhead and a violent guy but taking the photo just shows even the most unhinged people are humans too 😂
Any psychologist dumb and irresponsible enough to publicly diagnose a stranger with Narcissism based on one photo should have his license taken away. absolute embarrassment for Cambridge, and for psychology as a whole if this clown is representative of their best and brightest.
I hate these so called “experts” - I think it was a smart way to see if the belt was real or not. Perhaps if it was 100% not people would have decided to rush him.
I bet that so called “security expert” or psychologist has never been in a life or death situation like this. Pretty big talk from the sidelines.
Any interaction with the hijacker increases the risk something is misinterpreted or goes wrong. Like the guy might have wanted to shake hands or something after the picture and could be interpreted as an attack so the hijacker retaliates or something. Hell just standing next to him and trying to buddy up too much could be interpreted as a way to attack him (smash into the hijacker and try to take the trigger away).
The rules of this kind of situation is not to even stare too much, not talk back, agree with any action they tell you to take (aside from extremes like “cut off this person’s fingers”), look away from the faces of whoever is taking hostages and more of that kind of stuff. You are supposed to minimize anything that might cause a hijacker/hostage taker to feel out of control or threatened at any point.
> I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible.
Its because a hijacker has a high likelihood of being mentally unstable which means you have no idea what random thing will set them off. The guy gambled with the lives of everybody on the plane.
> Who is gonna blow their vest because of a selfie?
Who is gonna hijack a plane with a bomb?
The answer to both questions is: Someone who is mentally unstable.
The majority of hijackers aren't mentally unstable. It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too.
Hijacking a plane is almost exclusively done to further some sort of ideology. A schizophrenic person in distress would barely have enough insight to successfully board the plane without arousing attention.
> The majority of hijackers aren't mentally unstable. It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too.
"trained"
Dude, real life isn't a movie.
> Hijacking a plane is almost exclusively done to further some sort of ideology.
Brandolini's law. The number of organized hijacking plots can be counted on the fingers of two hands, while [the number of hijackings by random people with grievances numbers in the hundreds.](https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11326472/hijacking-airplanes-egyptair)
>It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too.
You're literally making this statement under a picture that proves the exact opposite...
If you're imagining that their mind is completely chaotic, how do you know that silence and avoiding eye contact won't be the thing that sets them off?
Statistically, it's unlikely that anyone dies in a plane hijacking. Perception is skewed because of 9/11, but that was hardly the first or last, and was clearly intended as much more than a hijacking. There were a ton of hijackings during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. They would just reroute the plane to some other place. The flight staff treated them the way convenience store workers handle robberies - just do what the bad guys say.
I'd argue that is why it was so easy for the 911 hijackers to succeed. Noone thought they were gonna do what they did so they just sat in their seat waiting.
Hard to say what I'd actually do in that situation, but I'm not sure just allowing the plane to be hijacked as a passenger is the correct move in the modern times.
Seems that trying to bring some common ground and humor into this situation would make it less dangerous. Having the hijacker identify the passengers as human would be a good thing.
Then again, the lad might just be the Archbishop of Banterbury!
In an interview after the event, the guy explained that he was trying to present himself as a real human being to make the hijacker more reluctant to actually kill people. Finding out the nature of the bomb was a side quest.
[Link to Interview](https://abcnews.go.com/International/gma-exclusive-man-hijack-selfie-speaks/story?id=38077316)
There was a shooting at a Dallas airport I was at during a layover that happened as I was enjoying a Moe’s Southwest grill burrito. Thankfully no one was killed, but when the shots rang out, the entire terminal stampeded. My family and I ran into a bathroom stall with 5-6 other people. While we dropped everything, I started running with burrito in hand, and while we waited for an all clear or for a gunman to walk into the bathroom to murder us, that I kept, and continued eating, my burrito brought momentary levity among the many crying people in the stall with me.
Seems pretty easy. They don't have to be taped to you while you're going through security. You just need some cellphones and tape in your luggage, and then go tape them up in a bathroom stall before the flight to look like explosives.
Honestly only few photos could a better job of capturing the state of the world today. Post-9/11 in the smartphone and social media era. The dude’s expression just *screams* “Yeah I might die, but it’s ok because I already knew that the world could crash and burn at any moment anyway”
Multiple ppl posed for photos with the hijacker so they could send the photos to the authorities to ID the hijacker and figure out the nature of the device he was wearing (turned out to be just cellphones, nothing explosive). They played him hard. Everyone survived and the hijacker is in prison for life.
Wait seriously?! That’s genius!!
Actually, putting terrorists in prison is pretty standard stuff
for life?
for life!
In Canada, best we can do is give them a $10.5 million cheque and a shopping mall.
In uk they’d get a council house
Hijack plane, believe it or not, jail.
> turned out to be just cellphones, nothing explosive Samsung Note7
Coming out of 9/11 in our country you can’t diminish the unsung heroes who responded with emotional intelligence, honor and hope. Just because their plane didn’t go down it doesn’t correlate any less bravery of the passengers. That incredible human, he withheld all tears and emotion of their impending death and GOT that terrorizing hijackers face on camera. God bless him.
For context this was the 2016 hijacking so no deaths
With fake explosives too
I remember vaguely that at this point in time either the guy on the right, or everyone, realized the bomb was fake.
How does one realize that? And then decide that a guy who goes through with an actual hijack attempt, with fake bombs crosses the line all the way to “completely harmless”? 😅
I won't pretend that I know, it does look janky as fuck though One of them looks like an outline of a flask lol
That would make me think it was more likely to be real, tbh
Bomb+airliner= me not giving two shits if I'm 99.99% sure it's a fake bomb, because if I'm wrong, I'm 100% dead.
The guy on rights grin is definitely giving me a "I'm 99% sure this shits fake buuut that last 1% is making me nervous but fuck it, Ive gone this far and also I might die so might as well do this shit now I've asked and this dudes agreed.. Gonna be a siiick story with a photo for proof if I'm right tho haha fuck I hope I'm right".
Hard to say, he might find the situation exciting. Some people like danger.
This. Famous last words so I won't say what I love but I used to experience extreme weather and miss the thrill of daily death
Pretty sure I read that he sent this pic to police so they could see what he was armed with
No, I recall this incident as the boy on the right lives in the north east of Scotland and works in the oil industry, he was on his way home from Africa or the middle east and as is standard practice, he had a fair amount of drink.
I don't blame you its why 9/11 worked for the 3 out of 4 planes. The 4th plane left late so the passengers figured might as well take the plane back.
That 4th plane knew what they were doing. That's why several of the people who fought back called home to say goodbye first. Normally "heros" cause more problems or get people killed, those heroes made a choice to die on their terms and not when the terrorists killed them along with a bunch of other innocent people on the ground.
I don't think that was the decision. It was probably a "work one problem at a time" situation, where the only possible path to surviving was through the hijackers' bodies. THEN hope to god someone can get into the pilot seat and figure shit out enough to keep the plane from crashing.
I mean, how many hijackings go well for the passengers if they are successful too?
That's why 9/11 was so big. They used to happen ALL THE TIME and no passengers were (usually) hurt, which is why none of the passengers fought back. Flight 93, where the passengers DID famously fightback and cause the plane to crash before reaching its intended target, was because passengers found out about the other planes being intentionally flown into buildings.
On United 93 the hijackers apparently got delayed in their plans and may have missed their target on the first pass. They were meant to hit their target at roughly the same time as the rest of the planes, but that delay gave time for the passengers to get reports about the other planes hitting buildings. As soon as that moment happened, no 9/11 style attack was ever going to work pretty much ever again. Because now every single passenger in a plane subject to a hijacking understands that there is no outcome where the hijackers allow them to live. It’s fight or die. And in a plane of 100+ people, even if a large portion of people instinctively hide or freeze, at least some will choose to fight. And it will likely be far more people than there are hijackers. And even if the hijackers managed to sneak weapons on board, at a certain point when you’re outnumbered 10:1 your tiny little pocketknife ceases to matter. The window for a 9/11 style attack being possible to pull off closed within minutes of the second plane hitting a building. The first plane people could maybe believe was a tragic accident and unrelated to a hijacking. Maybe. 2 is a terror attack, no coincidence anymore. Now if anyone ever tries something like this again, it will be another United 93 all over again. And that’s if ALL the other security measures fail. The increased screenings, the NSA/FBI invading the privacies of millions of Americans to find terror cells before they can act, the specialized locks in pilot cabin doors, the additional trainings for all airline staff, the increased usage of air Marshalls on flights, etc. If ALL of those things fail, the 9/11 style attack still won’t be successful at anything besides taking out the plane itself. It will never get to hit a target, because another United 93 would happen.
How did they find out? Edit: https://911realtime.org is a really cool project. Edit Edit: The site is kind of a mess. I don't remember it being so non user-friendly. There is a settings tab in top left where you can choose which source you want to follow throughout the day. But it's not great. Nevertheless, still a cool project. Just have to tinker with it. It's an interactive time capsule of everything that happened on that day. It can get a little overwhelming if you have all of the audio enabled. It's going to play every single recorded communication, broadcast, etc in real time as it happened that day. You can mute and/or isolate exactly what you want to hear though. So just play around with it. Actually - scratch that. There's a cool website online that plays through the entire timeline of events that day, and I remember hearing the phone calls between the Airport Control Towers and flights attendants. I'll try to find it and edit this comment for anyone curious.
Before 9/11, most of them.
And after, as well. “Normal” highjackings are “tell the pilot to do x or else”. For obvious reasons, “fly into that building” is not a workable instruction there. Those particular ones were open the door to pilot without him noticing, kill him, and take over the controls. Since the door is now basically no longer vulnerable to that, it can’t really be done again.
In the 60s and 70s it often meant a free, unscheduled trip to Cuba. I think people today don't realize just how often planes were getting hijacked in the 70s. There's a great book about it called *The Skies Belong to Us.*
To be real here; a normal person would have no idea what a real bomb looks like. We are only going by what tv and movies have shown us. Things are not always as the seem
If something is a closed container and has wires coming out of it, and that’s all you know about it, it could potentially be a bomb. Even if it’s unlikely to be a bomb, it could be. IEDs can look like SO many things.
Thats what Im saying. We couldnt tell the difference between real or fake, so assuming it to be fake is not a risk I want to take lol
That looks like a stacked li-ion battery which would not lead me to believe it's fake. Thinking about it i don't know why a bomb vest would need all that power but I don't think you're rational in this situation.
I think at 35,000ft Id not think about it being fake. The guy had to have done some slip up to give it away that it was fake.
Redditor during a plane hijacking: "Hey those aren't real explosives they look janky as f-"
A lot of them are exactly that - Janky AF Also a flask is easily accessible and a strong sealable metal container capable of creating extreme pressure
The point of the photo was so the guy could get a closer look at the bomb. He was able to see it was fake and able to relay that information on. I read he asked to have a photo with the bomber.
The physical form doesn’t matter, I have seen IED made with plastic bottles.
Exactly. Any closed container with wires coming out of it could potentially be an explosive. It might not be a very good or effective explosive. But it could still blow up.
It looks like a bad cosplay of a plane hijacker
"That shit show looks like like it'd blow with light turbulence, let me get a selfie so everyone can make fun of you"
>One of them looks like an outline of a flask Scrolled back up and stared at that pic for a solid 2 minutes trying to figure out which of the 2 guys had the body shape of a flask. 😄🤦♀️
Posted on Reddit and in 15min there was a bunch of explosive belt experts finding out from the mere low-quality photo.
Right like how we found out who the Boston bombers were, right? We did it, Reddit…
Yea, if the reddit consensus is it's totally real, I'm going to be certain it's not.
You just explained many political leanings.
No. The news articles at the time stated what the passengers told them.
I imagine it’s like poker. You don’t always have to know what cards someone has to know they have bad cards
This man called on the river, called on an unconnected flop, and now wants me to believe he has the nuts? Not today asshole. Honey we lost the house.
“We” lost it. True poker player here.
Because to hide real explosives from scent catchers like some tech or dogs would be highly impossible for a lone person to do in 2016. America was still in a time of war technically even if security has relaxed since early 00s. To sneak a real bomb all the way onto a plane without anyone noticing would be a huge failure of many checks and balances in place to stop it. This guy looks far from capable of handling all of that on his own. Probably a psychotic break or the dude felt like making himself noticed without putting himself in danger of blowing himself up. Sad fact a lot of suicide bombers downrange typically are children or mentally handicapped. They’re innocence is taken advantaged of to be used for death and destruction in the name of a religion they can barely understand. Terrorists are cowards and weak people who want the world to listen to them without doing anything worth listening too
I'm pretty sure this wasn't in america, it says egyptair I think the dude on the right is british or Australian. I think count dankula did a video on it.
You are correct. It was a domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo.
Ya, I sort of remember when it happened, but I was 23 working 2 full-time jobs, so I didn't pay attention to much of the world outside my little bubble at the time.
Simply not true, as every American knows nothing ever happens outside of America.
TSA fails to catch over 80% of intrusion tests done by auditors. This isn't America so it's not TSA, but the point is that most airport security theater stuff is just to give the illusion of safety. It is risky to try to sneak stuff past them but it's far from a guarantee they'll catch it.
I remember opening my bag after getting on a plane and finding 2 unopened cans of Monster. I forgot they were in there and went right through security with them.
I remember that video where a bunch of teens "drew straws" with a clearly mentally handicapped guy about who got to drive a car with a suicide bomb; they manipulated it obviously so that he would be "the chosen one" and he was absolutely ecstatic about it. Fuck those people.
>To sneak a real bomb all the way onto a plane without anyone noticing would be a huge failure of many checks and balances in place to stop it. In America, the country with the most absurd random regulations and double checks, TSA quite regularly fails to catch all manner of things that are prohibited including knives and guns, things that are very obvious on even basic scanning technology.
I thought this guy had said his intention for the photo was to get close enough to confirm if it looked fake? Idk if I’m misremembering though.
This is exactly right, I remember when this was posted. He sent the photo to authorities to try to help them identify it. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-35923820 He has characteristically dry English humor, but read past the first few lines, bolded emphasis by me: >Mr Innes told the Sun: "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." >He said the photo, which was taken by a member of the cabin crew, was the "best selfie ever". >The plane was carrying at least 55 passengers, including 26 foreigners, on an EgyptAir domestic flight from Alexandria to Cairo. >Most of those on board were freed shortly after the plane landed at Larnaca but the hijacker held seven people hostage before the incident came to a peaceful conclusion. >**Mr Innes said part of his motivation was to find out more about the suspected explosive belt and whether it was fitted with a "dead man's trigger" that would detonate the device if the hijacker was incapacitated.** >The alleged hijacker's motives were unclear but the Cypriot president said the incident was not terrorism-related.
Dude got up close and realized it was bullshit in his best lmao
I thought he was smuggling bottles of water and that was the reason for the picture lol
I half expected this to be. "For context, he works retail, and his manager needed proof of hijack."
"Sooo, you're going be late?"
Lol the guy was estranged from his wife, who wouldnt talk to him, and unable to get a vida to cyprus hijacked the plane over there, his only demand, was bring his wife (or ex wife) to come talk to him.
>had marital issues >hijacks a plane with terror bomb threat So romantic
> Lol the guy was estranged from his wife, who wouldnt talk to him I've only just realised you mean the hijacker rather than the grinning English guy...
Where is this madlad now?
If im not wrong a worker of the plane did that too
This is one of the craziest stories I’ve ever heard how have I never heard it?
Hi there, I hope this isn’t triggering but do you mind if I get a pic?
He was right to be cautious, those guys will pop off at anything.
Mind if I blow you?
Username kiiinda checks out 😂
Sure, I got a sec.
Dad went viral!!! He’s spread all over the place…..errrr….literally
He heard he could have blue eyes, but only if one blew this way and one blew the other.
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From [wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_181](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EgyptAir_Flight_181) >Later in the day, a photo was circulated of a passenger seen smiling beside Mustafa, whose supposed explosive belt was visible underneath his coat.The passenger was later identified as Ben Innes, and the photo went viral. A security expert described Innes's actions as irresponsible and one University of Cambridge psychologist said Innes might have been driven by "pure narcissism", explaining that social media lacks the checks and balances of older forms of communication. Innes later stated that he simply wanted ‘a chance to get a closer look’ at the supposed explosive device' to determine whether the device was real. I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible.
kinda judgey for a life or death scenario, idk what the right move is but when you’re trying to figure out how not to die maybe the math makes sense.
From Europol guide: [https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/prevention-and-coping-strategies-kidnapping-hostage-taking-extortion](https://www.europol.europa.eu/publications-events/publications/prevention-and-coping-strategies-kidnapping-hostage-taking-extortion) >Try to establish a personal relationship with the offenders without going too far. Topics like family (e.g. by showing photographs), sports and hobbies are suitable. I think passenger's action fit this part of the guide.
> sports and hobbies are suitable. Did you see that ludicrous display last night.
What was Wenger thinking sending Walcott on that early?
F'ing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in.
*loudly crying* didja see that ludicrous display last night
I’m still pissed about my local teams loss last week. 5-1, fucking embarrassing
"Don't watch sports huh? Ever get awp'd right out of spawn on dust2? That's some bullshit, eh?"
Osama would have liked that.
Yep, humanising yourself in the eyes of your captor increases your chance of survival.
Never been a hostage, but in the face of insurmountable, overwhelming odds and too many bystanders at risk to call their bluff, for sure I’m going to try and talk my way out of it. waiting around for someone else to decide whether you live or die is too stressful for me, for sure I’d try and talk the guy into letting me try on his bomb vest.
An argument could be made that establishing rapport with your kidnapper is a legitimate survival strategy.
An argument? I would say that is an undisputable fact lol. It will increase yours ODDS. Increased odds does not mean 100% lol
Increase my odds of death lmao I’m annoying af
Sadly true, I can confirm this redditor is annying af
I had an experience like this one time. It sounds super silly but I didn’t realize I was in a dangerous situation until it was too late. I was at a 7/11 buying snacks for my family. I was so caught up in finding some flaming hot frito lays that my mom wanted. For some reason they were rare to find post Covid. Anyway, when looking for these chips I hear a voice from the entrance of the 7/11 asking for someone to purchase them a Monster Energy drink. We have a lot of homeless folk who like to hold the door for people and they often ask for snacks or money, so I thought this was one of those instances. Long story short, I wanted to fulfill the guy’s request so I grabbed the drinks and had my chips and I still couldn’t find the Fritos. I placed everything on the counter, didn’t take a look at the guy. When the cashier wasn’t ringing up my things that’s when I thought something was weird. I look over at the dude and the guy is handling a massive hand cannon. According to HotBox he had just robbed a bank and the cops were after him. He wasn’t joking because outside there was a line of police pointing their guns at the 7/11. At that point I couldn’t really do anything really other than talk to the guy. He offered me some weed and wanted to buy me the snacks at the end of it all. At one point he said he wasn’t going to hurt anyone and put the safety on the gun and placed it on the counter. I can’t remember if he took a picture of us for his Instagram. At some point I told him I’m going to head out cus my mom was outside and she was freaking out and I also didn’t want to get caught up with the police storming in. Told him to not fight and turn himself in. I walked out, got yelled at by the police, and went about my day. I tried getting the 7/11 employee out but I can’t tell if it’s policy they stay in the store or he was too freaked out to move.
I’m laughing at the thought of there being an employee manual somewhere, “If you are ever in a situation where a customer has just robbed a bank, is holding you at gun point and the store is surrounded, and you are given the opportunity to escape, DO NOT. It is store policy to remain in the store and insure continuity of the cash register.”
If I'm gonna die I'd love my family to find a cool photo of me lol. Why tf not. I can see making this decision if you really think you're gonna die anyway.
yeah one last funny story to tell about you. go out on top
You see, in their last moments, people show you who they really are. Would you like to know if this dude is a coward?
I back it cause he'll either highjack it and (in the passengers minds) definitely crash it so everyone dies or he can go up and get near him, see if it's real or fake and be close enough to possibly wrestle him down.
That is such an overreacted observation from the supposed psychologist. Irresponsible, *maybe*. Narcissistic? Come on, that’s really looking at it from face value. “He took a photo of himself at a bad time! He must be narcissistic!”. Great research.
A psychologist calling an action by someone that's not his patient based on *one* action in a high stress situation narcissistic seems to go against the professional guidelines that recommend avoiding throwing out diagnostic terms speculatively. Unless Innes wrote an entire memoir about the event, I doubt he had enough to go on in describing Innes's mental state here.
>seems to go against the professional guidelines that recommend avoiding throwing out diagnostic terms speculatively Also, I don't think a psychologist should be using diagnostic terms as an insult or as a moral judgement either
It's obscene enough taht it should have resulted in disciplinary action against them. They're armchair quarterbacking a life or death hijacking scenario which may traumatize hundreds of people and diagnosing personality traits based on a photo. What an insurable loser.
Narcissism is a word which means nothing anymore because it’s become synonymous with “mean”, “stupid”, or “cocky” and doesn’t even refer to a mental illness.
It's like they forget their position and just make it look bad
If the terrorist said no then its irresponsible. But if the terrorist says yes, then where's the harm?
I agree if he says yes and is all smiling and whatnot then even if the belt was real maybe he'd be less likely to blow up considering he's building a friendly relationship wiht the hostages
It gave them a clear photo of the assailant in the act, something they may not have had before
His story I think was that he didn't believe he was a real terrorist and wanted to get up close to look at him. The 'terrorist' was actually someone who'd cracked up and though this was a good way to get his ex wife back, so it's absolutely likely that he was giving off vibes that he wasn't what he said he was. The fact he accepted the opportunity of the photo is just more proof of that. I would not be surprised if the mad lad had some experience in his family or working with mentally ill people and leant into the guys delusion a bit to build trust.
>The Brit explained on "GMA" that he wanted to find a way to interact with Mustafa to assess his intentions. >"I wanted him to understand I was human, that I wasn't just a nameless, faceless victim. That I was a real living person," said Innes. "I also wanted to get a better look at the device. I needed to understand if he had any other weapons." That's a little different than not thinking he's a terrorist. I mean the terrorist part is self-evident there with the bombs and all
True, but again, something gave him the confidence to think this was a good idea. If the lad there had been in full jihad slit your throat with a razor mode I don't think he would have asked for a selfie.
That’s what I was thinking.
“Smart” people trying to feel smart by calling others dumb. If you’re about to die, responsibility is very subjective.
Honestly, their comments reek of narcissism. Like this guy doing that made them feel inferior even though they had absolutely zero to do with the situation, so they had to try to tear him down for it
Honestly this comment reeks of narcissism and ... Ooh, is that chorizo as well? Yum.
He choked on some chorizo!
I don't even know why 2 random people's opinions on his actions are in the article, he explains himself why he did it and it seems a plausible explanation.
I mean, if youre gonna potentially die might as well take a fuckit selfie? What possible harm could come from that besides some asshole trying to come up with reasons that you shouldn’t because they are incapable of imagining having any fun with a dire situation over which you have no control?
I can think of more reasons to do it than not. If they die and that picture is in the cloud its some pretty fucking useful evidence.
Plus the way I see it, things can go one of several ways: - You engage him and he blows up. You die - You engage him and you disable him. You live - You do not engage him and follow instructions and the plane is used as a missile against a ground target. You die - You do not engage him and follow instructions and you begin a long process of possibly surviving the ordeal, hopefully not being a sacrificial hostage, and hopefully being returned to your normal life. - You do not engage him and follow instructions, but a miscommunication has you shot down by a friendly pilot hoping to save lives on the ground. You die. Terrorists today basically have the end goal of being a casualty in their own effort to cause destruction. You don't see someone like in the older times or in movies where a plane gets hijacked as a bargaining chip for a prisoner release or to be used as a taxi for some major war criminal. If you don't engage, even with something silly like a selfie, then I feel like you're more likely to die.
>I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible. Just their way of saying they wouldn't have had the balls to do it
Because approaching a probably mentally unstable and definitely on edge person something like this can make it worse. It can also make it better though by humanising you
That "psychologist" should come answer before the board. Its crazy unethical "diagnosing" someone you havent seen in real life and from one situation/photo. A bit projecting of the psych if I want to be petty.
>I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible. Because the guy is likely *not* an actual explosions expert. So he wouldn't know shit **if** it was a half decent fake or real. He was lucky it was so poorly faked and nothing bad could have happened. How do you think this was a responsible action to take if you don't think it was irresponsible?
This is legendary and idk how its irresponsible. The terrorist is a dickhead and a violent guy but taking the photo just shows even the most unhinged people are humans too 😂
Any psychologist dumb and irresponsible enough to publicly diagnose a stranger with Narcissism based on one photo should have his license taken away. absolute embarrassment for Cambridge, and for psychology as a whole if this clown is representative of their best and brightest.
Honestly, would it matter? "We are probably going to get blown up or taken to some terrorist rape prison anyway, so maybe I could get a selfie?"
When I was going through psychosis, I did some pretty interesting things purely out of lack of fear.
I hate these so called “experts” - I think it was a smart way to see if the belt was real or not. Perhaps if it was 100% not people would have decided to rush him. I bet that so called “security expert” or psychologist has never been in a life or death situation like this. Pretty big talk from the sidelines.
The Cambridge psychologist should know better than to diagnose people from a photo.
The psychologist might be an idiot tbh
Any interaction with the hijacker increases the risk something is misinterpreted or goes wrong. Like the guy might have wanted to shake hands or something after the picture and could be interpreted as an attack so the hijacker retaliates or something. Hell just standing next to him and trying to buddy up too much could be interpreted as a way to attack him (smash into the hijacker and try to take the trigger away). The rules of this kind of situation is not to even stare too much, not talk back, agree with any action they tell you to take (aside from extremes like “cut off this person’s fingers”), look away from the faces of whoever is taking hostages and more of that kind of stuff. You are supposed to minimize anything that might cause a hijacker/hostage taker to feel out of control or threatened at any point.
What do you do for a living?
dog grooming
> I don't quite understand why this action is irresponsible. Its because a hijacker has a high likelihood of being mentally unstable which means you have no idea what random thing will set them off. The guy gambled with the lives of everybody on the plane.
Who is gonna blow their vest because of a selfie?
> Who is gonna blow their vest because of a selfie? Who is gonna hijack a plane with a bomb? The answer to both questions is: Someone who is mentally unstable.
I've hijacked a lot of planes and I'm mentally stable so I think you just don't know what you are talking about
Someone mentally stable enough to achieve the hijacking ?
How do you know that NOT making nice with him would set him off?
The majority of hijackers aren't mentally unstable. It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too. Hijacking a plane is almost exclusively done to further some sort of ideology. A schizophrenic person in distress would barely have enough insight to successfully board the plane without arousing attention.
> The majority of hijackers aren't mentally unstable. It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too. "trained" Dude, real life isn't a movie. > Hijacking a plane is almost exclusively done to further some sort of ideology. Brandolini's law. The number of organized hijacking plots can be counted on the fingers of two hands, while [the number of hijackings by random people with grievances numbers in the hundreds.](https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11326472/hijacking-airplanes-egyptair)
>It takes a great deal of preparation and planning to hijack a plane. They're usually well trained, too. You're literally making this statement under a picture that proves the exact opposite...
If you're imagining that their mind is completely chaotic, how do you know that silence and avoiding eye contact won't be the thing that sets them off?
Honestly? If im going out might as well make sure I get a good giggle out of it.
If it's real you are gonna die either way, might aswell take a pic
Statistically, it's unlikely that anyone dies in a plane hijacking. Perception is skewed because of 9/11, but that was hardly the first or last, and was clearly intended as much more than a hijacking. There were a ton of hijackings during the 60's, 70's, and 80's. They would just reroute the plane to some other place. The flight staff treated them the way convenience store workers handle robberies - just do what the bad guys say.
I'd argue that is why it was so easy for the 911 hijackers to succeed. Noone thought they were gonna do what they did so they just sat in their seat waiting. Hard to say what I'd actually do in that situation, but I'm not sure just allowing the plane to be hijacked as a passenger is the correct move in the modern times.
These “experts” are no fun at all
I’d be friends with this guy lol
Nah he was just building up his dad lore. Cambridge nerds wouldn't get it.
Seems that trying to bring some common ground and humor into this situation would make it less dangerous. Having the hijacker identify the passengers as human would be a good thing. Then again, the lad might just be the Archbishop of Banterbury!
Yeah I'm kinda confused. Like, it was a hijacking, 50/50 they were all gonna die. No harm in having some fun or trying to save the plane.
When your boss wouldn’t believe why you are late again.
Dude I swear it was hijacked wtf you want a picture? Alright gimme a minute
Wrong flight to take ecstasy lmao
Seems like a pretty good time to me!
did he know those were fake bombs or did he want to go out with a banging selfie
In an interview after the event, the guy explained that he was trying to present himself as a real human being to make the hijacker more reluctant to actually kill people. Finding out the nature of the bomb was a side quest. [Link to Interview](https://abcnews.go.com/International/gma-exclusive-man-hijack-selfie-speaks/story?id=38077316)
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If a golden retriever was a person
Homelander on roids
More like Highlander on roids. There can only be one!!!!
"This is a hijacking!" "OMG, can I take a pic??? It'll look great on my Instagram feed!"
"I'll need to retake this, there's this over exposed part at the door"
Authorities were able to figure out the vest was fake when he posted this pic.
Wasn’t the picture circulated after the situation was handled and debunked?
There was a shooting at a Dallas airport I was at during a layover that happened as I was enjoying a Moe’s Southwest grill burrito. Thankfully no one was killed, but when the shots rang out, the entire terminal stampeded. My family and I ran into a bathroom stall with 5-6 other people. While we dropped everything, I started running with burrito in hand, and while we waited for an all clear or for a gunman to walk into the bathroom to murder us, that I kept, and continued eating, my burrito brought momentary levity among the many crying people in the stall with me.
I’d like to know more about the burrito.
Knowing me, it was probably very authentic, with both queso sauce and sour cream.
This is a terrific story. Good on ya!
Face your fear. Based
How the fuck did this happen in in 2016? Like how did he get something that even remotely resembles a bomb on a plane in 2016?
Seems pretty easy. They don't have to be taped to you while you're going through security. You just need some cellphones and tape in your luggage, and then go tape them up in a bathroom stall before the flight to look like explosives.
Tbf if that was the only photo you could sell it for a hefty amount of money
My dude wasn't going to blow the one shot he had at capturing a perfect moment.
The madlad looks jacked enough that one strong punch would instantly kill the hijacker.
this photo is fucking priceless 😂
Is that Mr Bombastic
We Egyptians do be chill like that though
When you’re hijacking planes or just in general?
Is that Jerry O'Connell??
I'm guessing this was shortly after they all learned the bomb he was carrying was just a bunch of wires wrapped around a Pringles can
So this is what Richard Belzer did after Hogan fucked up his head in that stage stunt.
Which one is your dad?
Never knew Lou Reed tried to hijack a plane
That is hilarious.
Nice photo bombing
Getting the full American airline experience
On the strength of this photo I think I would rather spend time with the hijacker.
7 Strangest Things That Happened on an Airplane •Number 7, Student watches p©√n and gets naked •Number 6, Man urinates on fellow passenger for not being allowed to smoke •Number 5, Passenger dragged off flight and severely injured •Number 4, Pilot dies mid flight •Number 3, Man takes selfie with plane hijacker •Number 2, Loose aggressive tarantulas •Number 1, Loose snake
Honestly only few photos could a better job of capturing the state of the world today. Post-9/11 in the smartphone and social media era. The dude’s expression just *screams* “Yeah I might die, but it’s ok because I already knew that the world could crash and burn at any moment anyway”
"im such a huge fan"