Hey all I work for an airline so a little insight (Flight Attendant). The airlines have been probed ever since 9/11 and it has rarely stopped. My airline was not among the ones involved but we were used quite often by them to get back and forth. We probably were the ones that got them to Washington D.C the day before. Anyways personally i've seen it myself and even had to be interviewed by the FBI. Person gets on board sits down and acts like thier on vacation. Gets out video recorder and films outside of plane (normal). During flight moves to seat in back and films a little of cabin (not normal). Twenty minutes before landing gets up when he thinks flight crew isn't watching and goes down isle filming the cabin and takes now a third and different seat (NOT NORMAL!). Sadly this happens, be it your local rednecks looking for a good time or your tan friends from the mideast trying to join the mile high bomb club. Its a reality nowadays.
Does this mean flying isn't safe? Hell no! Almost every flight now has an armed person. Here's a small list...
FAM- Also what I call MiB's (Men in Baggies) These are your tax dollars at work. There job to protect the cockpit door and only the door. So as a flight attendant im just cannon fodder*cry*.
LEO- Law inforcement going to work or vacation. Most of them come armed nowadays.
Pilots- Yes now some of them are armed.
Also the procedures have drastically changed. Here's another small list.... (okay little long)
1) Cockpit doors use to be breakable. Before 9/11 you could go to a cockpit door, kick, and break one of three pieces off. Reason for this was in case of a fire or crash the pilots could still get out. Now the doors are amour plated to the teeth. Can you say going down with the ship? <img src="/~stretch/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />
2) Flight attendant crews and passenges stay calm and passive. Ahhh the good ole days where someone would hi-jack a plane to free friends or visit Disneyland (Disneyland hi-jack happen to us in the early 90's <img src="/~stretch/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) Today people attack and don't ask questions. Want to stand by the cockpit and yell I can fly this plane better ? Most likely you won't live, five years ago people would have sat and watched. Hell even your flight crew could have approached you and asked how they could help. Now we grab a coffee pot and burn the skin off your body real slow like.
Now someone mentioned gas grenades, we got something better called gravity. So lets say someone tries to hi-jack. They stand up and attack flight attendants. Maybe everyone stays seated and they kill a few of us telling one of the flight attendants thats still alive to make the pilots open the door. So he/she calls them and places in a secret work. Now most likely its going to get ugly. Plane will likely drop immediately from 40,000 ft to 15,000 quickly throwing those not seatbelted into the the ceiling, most likely killing them.
