Originally Posted by Spiff

The reason these attacks succeeded is because we are unprepared for them. Thanks to the federal air marshal program, we are now prepared for 5 terrorists armed with knives who attempt to hijack a plane while the passengers and crew do nothing. Brilliant!

Unfortunately, the event we are now prepared for will never occur again. Knives cannot be used to hijack a plane. Passengers and crew will fight back and the pilots will not open cockpit doors.

It's reliance stupid, useless, expensive feel-good "security" crap like this that makes it pitifully easy for a terrorist to shove some plastique up his/her butt, hide a blasting cap in a laptop, and then blow the plane apart in the lav. Meanwhile, 2 useless sacks of ballast got a free lunch, two revenue passengers sat in coach, and no explosives detection equipment was ever installed at the security checkpoint. How comforting.