A co-worker told me that when he travelled with his family and mother-in-law to Yosemite park last year, he was shocked when he saw his mother-in-law pull a knife out of her purse and start carving an apple after reaching the first connecting flight.
I think they are making more of the contraband thing than they should these days. I can’t imagine the passengers let anyone take over flight now unless they are armed with at least a semiautomatic weapon. I don’t think box cutters or pocken knives, let along fingernail clippers, are going to the trick now days!
The whole 9/11 plan was so successful simply because all the hijackings in the past were to get the plane and get taken somewhere like Cuba.
I wouldn’t want to be the one who tried taking over a plane full of passengers with nothing more than some sort of knife-like object. I suspect they would find me beaten to death when the plane landed.