<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
...I think that just believing everything the TSA says is even stupider than relying on the passengers to prevent another hijacking...As far as I am concerned, the probability of the passengers not stopping another hijacking is extremely low.</font>
I recently took a flight in which the plane was half empty. As I recall, the other 25-30 passengers ran the gamut of typical passengers: black, white, latino, old, young, strong, weak. The FA's were two older females and one older man. The plane was half-full. Assuming that a team of hijackers of 5 (or even more) people board, armed with nail clippers or even simply their own brawn, trained in martial arts, it is not far-fetched to envision them taking out every single passenger resisting, then breaking down the cockpit door and taking over the plane.
Characterizing as extremely low the possibility that passengers would NOT be able to stop the hijackers is wishful thinking. The possibility is indeed present, unfortunately.