Originally Posted by tsadude
That's a bit far fetched. The cabin ceiling interior wouldn't support the weight of a lynching. Besides, if an Air Marshall puts a weapon to someones head and orders them to stop,you'll stop or follow the light at the end of the tunnel.
I am using the term "lynched" to refer to a public mob beating of an individual or group of individuals that leads possibly to death. I am not using the term "lynched" to apply exclusively to being hung by rope from a tree or the like.
It's improbable but not so far-fetched.
Let's take the same DTW-LAX flight with 13 Armenian nationals. Let's say 2 are shoe bombers and the other 11 are normal people. The 2 terrorists are spotted by the 11 other Armenians who decide to gang-rush the 2 terrorists in the back of the plane. The Air Marshall has no idea that there are 2 terrorists that are being taken out by the 11 good Armenians. So the Air Marshalls shout but there is a language barrier and they start shooting. All of a sudden we have several dead good guy Armenians and the 2 bad guy Armenians get the opportunity to get their shoe bombs off. Everyone is screwed because of the presumed anti-Middle Eastern sentiment and a language barrier. Far fetched? Better hope so.