Originally Posted by
justawanab
Am I wrong?
YES!
Sorry, couldn't resist.
The old, pre 911 protocol was to cooperate with the hijackers. The success of this policy is debatable, but that's the way it was handled then. The reasons for the change in protocol should be obvious. The primary percieved threat now are individuals who very likely intend to crash the airplane into a target, killing all on board and anyone unfortunate enough to be in the impact area. Cooperation with any individual who MIGHT even have such motives in mind would be tantamount to signing not only one's own death warrant, but many others too. So as a matter of policy, surrendering command and control of the aircraft must NEVER be considered by ANYONE to be a possibility. Anyone contemplating such an act must know with certainty that they will be fought to the death by all crewmembers and yes, passengers.
To allow, through lax adherance to the protective measures in place, or through a willingness to negotiate for your life, a person to take over an aircraft in this day and age is completely wreckless and irresponsible. Making the crews think that they would not be harmed if they would only cooperate is EXACTLY what Atta and his co-conspiritors counted on to execute their plan. And it worked only too well in three out of four cases. The fourth case ended as it did only because the stakes became known and some folks decided that they would not go down without a fight.
This is the new policy, and right or wrong, it is the only acceptable response considering the potential stakes. I think they got away with one this time. Don't expect such a harmless outcome the next time an aircraft is allowed to be taken over. These days, anyone planning to take over an aircraft must believe they will be killed without succeeding. It is a harsh reality which may not appeal to the more humanistic side of us. But it is preferable to the alternative of giving up the ship when it well may endanger yourself and so many others to such a high degree.
Just my opinion.
Best regards,
Westhawk