M. B. - "I'm sitting there maybe 15 feet away thinking, "If I were an athletic, well-trained Al Queda terrorist, with 2 or 3 of my buddies along with me in first class, and we were familiar with this dinner routine these AA guys do on these flights, it would be relatively easy for us to jump up at the right moment and get into the cockpit (even if the food trolley is in the way). And the next thing you know this plane is headed down into the next major city"

Those procedures always break down. Stewardesses visit, or bring refreshments, pilots head off to the can, or if one doesn't, a passenger reports an oil or fuel leak from a wing. And so on. There will usually be an opportunity which can be expanded.

It's usually a combination of things which break down simultaneously, with or without help. A pilot wanders back to the can. Then a (terrorist) passenger falls in the aisle with a heart attack or seizure. Another (terrorist) passenger reports a serious fuel or oil leak.

The peeing pilot will have to try to check the wing and try to get back to help with commo and diverting, the attendants will be occupied, the aisles will be clogged. When the pilot returns, the first-class (terrorist) passengers take over the cockpit with one less pilot in it.

Obviously this isn't the only scenario. But those doors WILL open in flight, the emotion of the moment WILL overtake the people, and the effect will be magnified because of the sheer boredom of 99.9999% (a lot, anyway) of their professional lives.

And then the terrorists would have a gun or two.

Arf