Sunfish the B767 ditching off Mauritias was due fuel starvation...the terrorists refused to let the captain divert and land for fuel so he could actually take them where they wanted to go...Australia from memory.
But you are right....we sit behind a bullet proof, locked door these days and won't open it for anything...not even serial decapitations of cabin crew, family members or pax...if they are going to that length to get into the flight deck we all know what will come next.
I personally believe I'll never face that scenario because the terrorists know it as well as anyone and I doubt that 911 style attacks will happen again...pity DOTARS/Polliticians see it as a way to control people/build empires....fear of the incredibly unlikely.
Sad really...one of the really nice parts of the job was cockpit visits from pax...both adult and kids but particularly kids.
As far as ASIC cards for non professional/employed pilots...well is anyone surprised that the whole deal wasn't terribly well thought through?
Have the useless morons thought about foriegn crews? I don't have an ASIC since I work for a foriegn carrier but I operate B767s in and out of Oz regularly...as do the crews of numerous airlines...many crewed by Ozzies/yanks/brits etc but also many crewed by people who might be viewed as 'suspect' or who fit the profilers potentially nasty list....what are DOTARS going to do about them? Absolutely NOTHING!!!
But lets hammer all the C152/210/PA28 crowd...it's a common human condition I see fairly often...can't really control this or that for political reasons so hammer those you can control twice as hard.
Or is the answer actually a little more sinister than that...make it impossible for GA to go to larger airports by making it impossible to get a 'security' clearance?
Chuck