A BRITISH man who posed for a photo with the EgyptAir hijacker has hailed it as “the best selfie ever” — but revealed he couldn’t bring himself to tell his panicked mother what he’d done.

    Health and safety auditor Ben Innes, 26, texted his mother minutes after daringly taking a picture with Seif Eldin Mustafa, the Egyptian who hijacked a plane and forced it to be redirected from Cairo.

    Oblivious to what her son had just done, Innes’ worried mother Pauline then told him “not to do anything to draw attention to himself” as the drama played out on television across the world.

    He told The Sun, “My mom was obviously frantic with worry and kept telling me not to do anything to draw attention to myself. I didn’t know how to tell her I’d already done a selfie with the hijacker.”

    The diverted flight had landed at Cyprus’ Larnaca airport, with 62 passengers on board, and Innes was one of four “foreigners” and crew held hostage by Mustafa during a six-hour standoff.

    But instead of panicking about his plight, Innes, who is from Leeds but living in Aberdeen, appeared rather calm about the situation and took a selfie before sending it to his friends in the U.K.

    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.”

    The hijacker “shrugged OK” when one of the cabin crew translated Innes’ request, before the health and safety auditor took what he labeled “the best selfie ever.”

    He then sent messages to his friends, telling one: “You know your boy doesn’t f*** about. Turn on the news lad!!!”

    It was accompanied by a selfie of him with Mustafa, who was wearing a “fake” suicide belt.

    The friend, seemingly worried, replied: “Wtf? Is that a bomb attached to the guys chest? You OK? Let us know when you get off.”

    Innes is believed to have approached hijacker Mustafa while being held hostage on the tarmac, and sent the “selfie of a lifetime” to one of his flatmates as well as other friends.

    “I have no idea why he took the selfie but I imagine he probably volunteered to take it as he’s no afraid to shy away from anything,” Innes’ flatmate Chris Tundogan said.

    “I find it pretty mental but that’s just Ben I guess!”

    Egyptian national Mustafa hijacked the domestic EgyptAir MS181, carrying 62 people, including eight British people and 10 Americans, shortly after it left Alexandria for Cairo early Tuesday.

    (SD-Agencies)