Any computer system is open to hacking, and freezing. Any 'safe mode' that must be able to be over-ridden, can be over-ridden. Any 'sky marshall' with a gun is liable to have that same gun used against him. Any martial arts trained cabin crew member is liable to come up against better trained, more capable and/or more numerous opponents.
Increased security on the ground is all well and good- but some one will beat it if they try hard enough.
Removing a high-jackers "win" scenario is THE most effective way to remove high-jackers from acft. They simply won't get on board in the first place.
The simplest, most effective and most guarranteed way to accomplish this is to remove the cabin's access to the cockpit. Self contained cockpit, also with it's own environmental system. "Holy !!!!!" buttons for cabin crew to press should there be any ruckus in the cabin to alert the cockpit. Flight crew or "sky marshal" (in this case lets call him/her "video surveillance") are warned and monitor events in the cabin on closed circuit cameras. If situation warrants, captain orders KO gas released into cabin. Rule addition to include "All flights must carry sufficient 'KO gas' to reach closest
suitable alternate at any stage of flight" - or some such. Ground crew alerted, acft lands, pax wake up with headaches, Mr High-jacker and friends wake up on death row sans appeal.
I'm a driver, not a fixer nor a maker- so please excuse my "oh lets just make the cockpit and the cabin
separate environmental systems". I figure it cannot be too easy nor cheap to make two separate pressue hulls, but then again maybe it can be done relatively cheaply by one of you brilliant folk.
Then again, maybe there is call for both ideas- so the captain has a "!!!!!, the co-pilot is a nucking fut and is trying to kill us all" button. But making your computer system fail safe will prove much harder than installing my bulkhead.
At least i think so...
