Abd-Allah El Ashmawy is a 31-year-old surgeon who was on the Egypt Air flight when Seif al-Din Mustafa allegedly hijacked a plane and forced it to fly to Cyprus.

Abd-Allah tells Newsbeat what it was like being on board and reveals the strange ways people responded to the crisis.

"I knew 15 minutes after take off. We were asked to hand over our passports by the crew. They said: 'There's no time for discussion, just hand them over.'

"At first I thought someone was missing.

A belt with explosives that could explode the plane at any time

"One of the crew members started talking to the couple in front of me. I was confused so I insisted on being told what was going on.

"They said the plane was hijacked. That there was a man at the back with a belt he says contains explosives and he could explode the plane at any time.

"I thought maybe everything will be alright and we'll land in Cairo. Then I looked at the map in front of me. I saw we were in the middle of the sea with nothing around.

"That's when it was a little bit more stressful.

I felt I was in a movie and it was going to end terribly

"By 30 minutes in, everyone knew.

"We tried to calm each other down, hoping we would survive. I felt I was in a movie and it was going to end terribly.

"One of the passengers went to talk to him. He said he wanted to check his belt. I'm glad he didn't because if he was a true hijacker this could have made him explode the plane.

'I thought we were going to die'

"The hijacker wasn't aggressive, he was just standing at the back of the plane smoking.

"One of the attendants told me he gave them a letter with the things he wanted.

"I thought we were all going to die. I thought of the people I love and my family. I thought of our last minutes together and how it would not be easy for my parents.

One guy rang his wife and told her about a secret bank account

"When we were approaching Cyprus, one of the passengers noticed there was mobile network.

"Even though the plane wasn't landed yet, he started calling lots of people in a loud voice. I told him to calm down as this might irritate the hijacker, but he continued to call people repeatedly telling them 'I'm hijacked, I'm hijacked'.

"One guy was calling his wife, telling her that there was some money in a secret bank account she didn't know about. She was asking for lots of details.

"Then there was a guy sitting behind me sleeping, who woke up as we were landing in Cyprus and his first response was: 'Why Cyprus? I just don't want to miss my connection.'

"He had apparently fallen asleep just after he handed in his passport.

"I sent a text to my dad because I know he tracks flights on his iPad.

An old man started to cry

"After we landed he said, the ladies and children will be allowed off first. The guys will stay.

"This is when all the married couples started freaking out and the wives cried out loud saying: 'I'm not leaving my husband.' The children were crying.

"Then he said he would only set free the Egyptians.

"Another old man started to cry and have a panic attack when he received his passport back. He couldn't believe it.

Chicken

"After we left the plane we were all in the airport for a long time.

"The news had wrongly mentioned another passenger, Ibrahim Samaha, as the hijacker so after the plane landed his wife called him and asked him why he hijacked a plane.

"Then there was a guy who managed to keep a whole frozen chicken in his hand luggage until we finally boarded the plane to get back to Egypt.

"He was angry when the security guard checked our bags and told him: 'No you cannot take a chicken on board'.

"The passenger refused to hand over his chicken. At that point it was just water and a chicken in a plastic bag.

"Then the guy said in Arabic: 'So you allowed a man with a explosive belt on the plane and don't want me take my chicken on board?'

"To end the discussion the chicken was put in the fridge on the plane and he took it when he was leaving. The whole rest of the flight he was talking about his chicken.

I'm not nervous

"Now a lot of people are making fun of it. These things make it seem like it was a joke from the start. But it wasn't. We were all under real stress and fear.

"I'm still not nervous of flying now though, which is good because I travel a lot.

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