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is that every passenger airliner already has the most powerful weapon available for the prevention of hijacking. It's -- the passengers themselves! Prior to 9/11, conventional wisdom held that in a hostage situation, you should not try to be a hero, you should cooperate with the hijackers and refrain from doing anything that would provoke them to violence or escalate the situation. Well, that conventional wisdom was already ancient history by the time United 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. The hijackers of the first three 9/11 flights succeeded only because the passengers didn't know they were on a suicide mission. Nowadays, if anyone were foolish enough to try to "take control of the plane," they'd be picking up the pieces of him all the way from First Class to the Coach Class restrooms in the rear before the flight was over. And I'm not sure you get 72 virgins for failing miserably at your martyrdom mission.
