Originally Posted by
law dawg
Not if most of them are up front. Put most of them in the galley as backup. Then send out some small groups to roam and keep everyone's head down. Your scenario would work if people jumped up and all went after them together. I wouldn't bet on it. A few might, but they'd be alone and conspicuous, which is what happened to the Israeli man on 9/11.
Putting them up front does not get them inside the flight deck - unless the door is unlocked from the inside, all they've done is hijack the cabin.
However, this scenario is why I continue to call for the procedures I've written about here before...
1) FA's have panic switches (and are under pain of termination and heavy fines for their misuse)
2) cameras and audio are located in the cabin, but turned off by default - they can only be turned on when the panic switch is activated, and will transmit audio/video to both the flight deck and the nearest ATCC
3) upon activated panic switch, secondary latching mechanism engages on the flight deck door - it cannot be opened even if the crew unlocks it. Only ATC can disengage this switch
4) Procedures require Capt. to dump cabin pressure, ATCC orders steep dive to lower altitude, and aircraft is vectored to nearest civilian or military airport (with appropriate capacity and police availability) for immediate landing
5) situation converts from potential hijacking to hostage situation on the ground
Steps 1-5 are very simple to implement and I'm open to hearing why they wouldn't work. Unfortunately, the only thing that DHS came up with was installing live cameras and audio at the seating area to actively watch and listen to passengers...an idea to which most people gave a big, and well deserved
