Pilot and passengers attack armed hijacker and win:
 

This one worked out right:

http://www.startribune.com/722/story/1007050.html

Johnnie Depp will play the pilot in an upcoming movie. Good ending I hear.

Every passenger on an airplane today is a deputy.

The days of easy hijacking are over.

+1 and its too bad that everyone was not armed! The days of easy hijacking are really over.

Hijackers should be fed to the plane reactors, by the crew members. Maybe that would dissuade them...

Aurel

...or force fed the dry, tasteless things they try to pass off as peanuts.

Yep...they could have all shot the loser in mid flight, put a few holes through the fuselage in the process, and ended the problem for everyone quickly and decisively.

-1

Edited for scoring.

that'd be a great invention - aircraft bullets - hard enough to penetrate the soft and juicy organs of a human, but soft enough to not penetrate the fuselage.

I think the already have those.

Sorry...it's been done:

http://www.deltaforce.com/catalog/media/glaser_ammo.jpg

They stole my idea!

Tiny holes from bullets would not have much effect on the pressurization of a commercial airliner cabin, from what I understand. And that's if any rounds even pierce the fuselage, what with all the upholstered furniture and bodies in its way.

Any of the people on those planes on 9/11 would have been glad to have had their plane ventilated like swiss cheese if it meant killing those bastards.

I saw this in the news. Great job on their part! Though obviously some folks, in other situations might go overbaord doing this, by and large I'm glad to see groups of people defending themselves in the wake of 9/11.

A few bullet holes in a pressurized airplane would not make a difference to the pressure system. They are already quite leaky, and the pressure is continually being pumped into the cabin to maintain pressure.

Not that I am for staging duals in flight or anything like that, it's just not the big deal that Hollywood has made it out to be.

Anyone else wonder how he got 2 guns on the plane?

Excellent outcome!

As far as the low-velocity shells go, yes they've been around for years. The standard issue sidearm for Air Marshalls for many years was the "AirGuard" revolver, with low-V bullets. Still, if one is fired too close to a window or other sensitive area, you can get a decompression problem. Nothing's perfect.

Wrong. I saw Goldfinger get sucked right out that little window!

A guy speaking Arabic with a first name of "Muhammed". Hmm. What a surprise, right?

Sub-Sonic frangible rounds are used often in black/spec. ops. They don't go through and they are silent when used with a suppressor. Same stuff is perfect for both airplanes and inside an apartment or house w/ drywall. Close range velocity can kill someone in a different room...like your kid.
<<<<<uses 12gauge shot gun for home defense.

Yep, proven on Mythbusters, rather interesting experiments they tried....

While I'm not surprised at all, if you read carefully the news:

"As Capt. Ahmedou Muhammad Lemine landed the Air Mauritania Boeing 737..."

...The flight was headed for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a stopover planned in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania."

The plane was full of muslims. Guess not all of them are terrorists.

While this happened, in my city Madrid we are holding the largest muslim terrorist trial, judging the responsibles of the Madrid train bombings. Tens of thousands of years are being asked by the prosecutors for each participant in the bombings.

Love them Mythbusters!!!!

One bullet would be better, after letting the family members of those they killed, have some time with them.

Oh, and if an airline Capt. thinks passengers should be armed, why wouldn't you agree?

You all beat me to it- Mythbusters clearly demonstrated that the small bullet holes wouldn't be a big deal. Not as big a deal as the loose nut hijacker.

They threw boiling water in his face- NICE!!!!

I smiled when I read this- I believe hijacking's successful days are long over-with.

True that. Nobody said they all are. However I think the more interesting (and telling) statistic would be "what percentage of the world's terrorists ARE Muslim" versus "what percentage of the world's Muslims are terrorists".

Clearly there's something about this Islam thing (or religion in general) that leads a disproportionate number of its "followers" to violent terrorist acts.

they were 7mm pistols. The TSA screening is set for 8mm and above...

You kidding right?

I mean you cannot carry a Red Bull through security but a 7mm pistol is o.k.?

yes. he's kidding.

My favorite sentence so far this year-


The forewarned passengers and crew threw boiling water from a coffee maker onto the man's face and chest, then beat him into submission.

But they left him alive, opening themselves up for lawsuits.

I doubt that air hijacking will ever work again. The passengers will react as though they are dead anyways, and they will rush the hijackers, no matter what. Not that we don't need airport security--I think it's also a deterrent.

Geeze I hope you are kidding around....

Let the air marshalls have the guns.
Thats what they are paid to carry.

We're not

Just make sure that you add that this sort of thing would never happen in Chicago. "Those" muslims are peaceful and a totally different sort of cat...

Sonic

A fair number of pilots have taken this into their own hands. They have taken their own vacation time, traveled to the school at their expense, bought the weapon themselves and gone through extensive training to carry weapons IN THE COCKPIT to defend themselves, the airplane and passengers.

You cannot put a sky marshall on every flight, there just are not enough available (know as a very good friend of mine is a SM) to cover every flight. ARM THE PILOTS!

The Federal law has stated since the 1930's that any airplane carrying US Mail the pilot should be armed to protect it, but this died out in the 1950's. Armed pilots have been in the planes for over 3 years and there has not been ONE incident in this time. If we are responsible enough to fly the plane, then please tell me why we are not responsible enough to carry a weapon in the cockpit?

Personally I wish that every flight crew member be armed, flight attendents included. Advertise the fact and tell anyone who even thinks that they want to hijack a plane about it. Hijacking a plane today is a death sentenance, and thats the way it should be.

We just make sure that they die without making themselves a martyr, so that they do not visit Allah, the 72 virgins or the gold...

After 9/11 a guy I work with (100% Texan) who's about 6'3" 220lbs, made sure he had the front seat on a flight facing the cabin. When the pilot came out to look in the cabin before take off, he told the pilot, "you take care of things up there and I'll take care of things back here." He said the pilot looked relieved.

Another guy I work with who's very blue collar said the only time he's flown first class was right after 9/11. A stewardess came out into the waiting area and picked the biggest (appearantly white) men she found and upgraded them to 1st class.

I agree the days of hijacking a plane in the US are over. We now know to take care of business in the air and not wait for the landing.