As a matter of fact, I am a very experienced programmer too.
Consider that the A320 series has over 6,500 hulls flying. It may seem mysterious to many people how and why it does what it does, but tens of thousands of pilots know the A320 better than you know your car that you have driven for years.
Muslim passengers. Muslim crew. Muslim maintenance. Very high baggage security. One Muslim on a flight, is one too many, regardless of age or sex. Biggest danger: Albanian, Bosnian Muslims, Germanized Turks, Frenchified-Worthy Oriental Gentlemen, etc. who clean-up to normal Euro-standard, and of course, the deranged "converts." Profile the hell out of'em.
This is an act of war. Commercial aircraft do not go silent at 38 Thousand feet and fly on for 18 minutes (perhaps 175 miles) on their own. Show me the passenger list.