"I know if I’m on a flight and someone act’s up and threatens the passengers I’m going to subject them to a headlock from hell and pound them in the head until they’re unconscious, box cutter, knife or not."

No you won't. The flight to which you're referring had some very, very strange hijackers. I doubt you're likely to see it again.

They were very confident, leaving passengers alone to make cell phone calls, visit, plan. I don't know if that was the flight which had 4 hijackers instead of 5, but they acted as if they were shorthanded.

In a takeover such as that, whether it's hijacking an airplane, robbing a bank, cops raiding a house or any other takeover, the first thing done is to establish dominance. Fear, yelling, conflicting orders, violence at no provocation. The hijackers are frightened, too, and it will show. They will not behave in a predictable manner.

If you're a hijacker you might want someone to resist, in order to show what will happen, and it won't be pretty. They will not be people, they will be objects in your way. You'll be frightened enough to do anything to anybody who seems like a threat.

As a passenger your mind will be completely overwhelmed for a while. You won't see anything you could do, won't know how to do it, won't know what anyone else will do. If you are not on an aisle seat, there will be precious little you could do anyway. If you are on an aisle, there will probably be a cart or another person between you and a hijacker. Jumping them won't be as easy as clubbing the person sitting in front of you. The hijackers will have reasonably good defensive positions, and you will not be coordinated with the other passengers. If you could get coordinated very likely the first person to a hijacker will be badly hurt.

Narrow aisles are like the proverbial "pass", where you come through one at a time. With enough people pushing, that might be an advantage unless the hijackers got a gun from the cockpit. Then they just shoot people and let them stack up.

After the initial overwhelming attack, there will be promises that if you behave yourselves you will be fine. People, including you, will want to believe that.

I don't buy the idea that some of the hijackers didn't know it was a suicide mission. They would not have left the coach passengers alone, to plot if all of them weren't aware this was a very short term affair. Clearly the hijackers didn't think an effective resistance could be mounted in the time available. The passengers deserve a WHOLE LOT of credit for that.

And, normally, there would be no cell phone calls, no talking, no getting up, no nothing. If it's done well the only people not sitting down quietly will be incapacitated fast.

I wouldn't count on being a hero. And I'm not saying people shouldn't try, or that they wouldn't be effective eventually. And it would be messy, hard. All I can think of is if everyone stood at once and flooded the aisles. By then the hijackers would have taken over the cockpit, and have any weapons there. Then they could start shooting, should they choose. Incapicate everyone in an aisle seat, for instance.

If the people in the aisle seats stay seated there's a problem. Coordinating it would be a chore for people who weren't allowed to talk. Possible, though, and better than flying into a building.

And I wouldn't count on having 15 or 20 minutes to talk on cell phones and plan with other passengers.

Arf