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Greg, thanks for posting the Speier message. Awesome!
The other thing to add is to be prepared to take on knife-wielding terrorists when traveling by air. Remember, it's rather unlikely to begin with, and even on a lightly loaded plane, you will probably have the advantage of numbers (nothing like an angry mob) and a flight crew trained to deal with this (at least now, anyway). Also, as far as has been reported, the terrorists re the WTC did not have bombs or guns, but only knives (very big sharp ones probably, but knives nonetheless).
Knives are short range weapons, and the assailants can be defeated by any combination of things thrown at them (like carry on luggage), pushed at them or used as a shield (like that carry on again, or that spiffy titanium laptop), blankets thrown over their heads, or fire extinguishers used as heavy instruments or sprayed at them. The main reason the groups succeeded at the WTC and Pentagon was because of a lack of preparedness for this type of attack (mental, procedural - like giving in and giving up the plane's controls after people were stabbed/killed).
Why Flight 93 crashed we may never know for sure, but it seems likely based on the reports that the passengers revolted, though it was probably too late to recover control (the terrorist in the cockpit may have crashed it when it was clear the passengers would win) or maybe they were at too low of an altitude/speed (even if the passengers got into the cockpit, the plane might already have been in a non-recoverable stall). So, the time to rise up would be soon after a terrorist threat becomes evident, and it is clear that they do not have guns (you'd never know for sure if they had a bomb, but unfortunately after the WTC, you have to take your chances even if they really might have one).
I would hope that such an attack would not happen again, but you can do something about it to improve your odds.
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