Years ago (long before September 11th 2001 & the subway bombings) as a first officer during a night flight I discovered a large heavy metal flashlight (MAG Light) in the flight deck a few thousand feet below top of climb. We had experienced a mechanical delay at the departure airport and several maintenance technicians had been on the flight deck resolving the issue.
It was a nice flashlight, heavy duty and felt very good and solid in my hand. What's the first thing that crossed my mind? You guessed it: gee I wonder if it works? So, I pushed down on the on/off button and sure enough it lit up. I didn't talk to the Captain about it, I just pushed the button. Almost immediately I was overcome with a terrible thought; what if the "flashlight" had been modified to contain an explosive device. If it had been, then my actions had just killed me and everybody else on the jet.
Sure enough several months later reading through some industry security briefing materials revealed the existence of several modified devices, including a flashlight. I sure felt dumb.
Often it is not the flying part of this job that makes it at times so very difficult. It is all the "odd" variations of circumstances, people and environmental challenges that present one with the most puzzling scenarios. Further there is usually several entities waiting in the perimeter to criticize and second guess your every action and word.
Good luck to this crew, I hope the best possible outcome and I am glad nobody got hurt.
Ya'll be careful out there!