Kudos to you, PA. Some of this thread is a bit nauseating. "Let's roll," my @ss.
And this clymer Detrich "and his seatmate began discussing what they'd do if they were hijacked. They made a pact to fight back." A "pact," he says? Did he swap blood or saliva with another candy@ss Walter Mitty clone, planning to "kick ass?"
And I just love the part about the one-day "seminars" by yet another "security expert/consultant."
Detrich may someday meet the fate of some "black belts" I have known at the hands of some real street fighters, who, unlike them, have been trained to control his adrenaline dump. It's hard to "roll" and do a Hollywwod roundhouse kickwhen you're slipping on the sh*t pouring down your pant legs.
As a final offensive comment, might I suggest that airlines save money that can be applied to effective security devices and real-deal security officers with real-world training and experience by eliminating the position of "flight attendant?"
These brats and gomer pains in the @ss with attitudes only get in the way while venting their wannabe jail guard frustrations on paying passengers. I don't need their crappy food and stingy drinks, their hostile and condescending attitudes, and their vain and empty declarations about their ensuring my safety. Nor do I need to make a "pact" (retttccchhhh)with some candy-@ss pencil-neck clymer I've never even met before.
Training and preparation is fine, if they are for real. But what I haven't heard here is any mention of the development of a "warrior" mindset; field-expediant weapons; scenario visualization; control of fear; awareness of surroundings; contingency planning; immediate reaction to a threat; and the resolve developed in advance to carry out violent means of self-preservation.
The most important thing for all of us to do is to lose, if necessary, the national passive sheep mentality that enabled teams of thugs armed, by all accounts, only with flimsy edged weapons to bring down four -- not three -- aircraft, two skyscrapers, and a piece of the headquarters of our armed forces.
My anger and outrage toward the camel-molesting bastards is second only to that concerning both the impotent government agencies and the socialist, liberal do-gooders who have castrated and anesthetized so much of American society.
Having said that, I'm simple enough to believe that the typical FReeper is far better off than our countrymen with respect to possessing the warrior spriit....