Warning: I do not personally believe the following theory should carry the day and result in any verdicts against AA or UA
If it were my case (and I was hourly, not contingent) I might be tempted to try this theory:
AA (and, of course, UA) breached their duty owed to the passengers and all on the ground to keep intruders off the flight deck. Had the crews not opened the doors (or had they used the crash axes to resist the bad guys), September 11 might have had a very different ending.
Yeah, yeah, I know, nobody could possibly forsee the tragic events of that day. All airlines subscribed to the "give hijackers whatever they want" school of thought. Still, I think it beats any theory predicated on "weapons," as the alleged knives/boxcutters/plastic blades (whatever) need not have been the cause of the cockpit takeovers.
Knives didn't fly those planes into buildings, nor did any boxcutters cut the doors down. The cause of the tragedies (but maybe one for which AA or UA should face no legal liability) is the simple fact that bad people were allowed to fly the planes. Either because the crews opened the doors and let them in or because the bad people broke the doors down.
Of course, the theory above probably isn't very popular - especially with the morons in charge of airport/airplane security.
Instead, those incompetent officials have villified everything sharp and pointy and will eventually convince a majority of Americans that it was the "bad" pocketknife that is to blame, not shortsightedness on the part of the airlines and everyone in charge of preventing September 11 from happening in the first place.
They immediately laid the blame at the feet of the x-ray and metal detector operators, on the absence of ID checking at every step of the way, on close-in parking spaces, on nearly everything sharp and pointy, (and for the first few days) on curbside checkin, etc.
As is common in America, officials will never admit that their shortcomings contributed more to September 11 than all the factors in the above paragraph put together. It's just not the American way to admit failure, especially when everyone owns a shredder.
Why fall on your sword when you can shred all the pertinent documents, lie through your teeth if ever questioned, and impose ridiculous new security procedures on every American who uses commercial airlines??
Oh, and mail confirmation of visa approval for some of the foreigners who six months earlier crashed 767s into the WTC and a 757 into the Pentagon.
