Good point, although knocking the pilot unconscious doesn't necessarily constitute murderous intent. Be that as it may, assuming the worst is what the passengers would have to do.
If a hijacker just has a fake bomb, passengers will almost certainly be able to jump him without crashing the plane. What risk do you see in attempting to do so?
The risk comes in jumping the pilot, should one of the hijackers have drugged the pilot. Considering what went on with the today's "hijacking", some assumptions might become a problem. Of course, I would hope that American air personnel would not get into that sort of miscommunication, but there's no guarantee on that.
Checked baggage is really a pain for short trips. It also poses serious risk that the items will not arrive intact at their destination. And please, tell me how tweezers endanger anyone on the aircraft.
Anything can be a weapon, as these terrorists proved with their shaving razors. I've had my luggage sent to South America when I was only going to Virginia for the weekend(got it back 2 months later). I'm well aware of the risk, but if a potential hijacker is equally and more importantly inconvenienced, I have no problem with that. Besides, tweezing and the like can be done before the trip and tweezers/nail clippers and razors can usually be purchased at one's destination.
And knives, either the stone-age type or modern ceramic equivalents.
True, although if they're checking for tweezers and nail clippers, I would hope they're checking for blades of any material.
How, other than strip searches, do you propose to detect non-metalic knives the terrorists have concealed on their person?