It's better to watch them rather than be the victim in one. I think everyone should see what these people are about. Beheadings of Christians by the Muslims in Indonesia is going on at a very high rate ---we need to know ---it's not going to stop with Indonesians and Jews, they go on and behead all Americans if they can.
I wonder when we will see an increase in people learning personal self-defense. Not necessarily commando style "how to take a man down" training, but sufficient knowledge as has been offered in protection from rape classes, etc.
Learning that it is okay to gouge someone's eyes out when they've got you in a hold, how to leverage your body off of theirs to make them unstable...
People have the notion that in a plane suddenly taken hostage, they will rise up and put down these trained mercenaries. It's a valiant concept but they are trained and many of us are not. To strike is better than nothing but to be trained in how to strike is even better.
As I say, these people have trained for resistance and will use knives. There are things we can do to counter their plans (and being prepared is one of them). These aren't the garden variety thugs who hold a knife at a person to get $20; a thug who may stab or slash at someone if the money is too small or to inhibit a witness from talking; these are dedicated terrorists/thugs who are prepared to kill a man in a horrible manner.
We need to accept the fact that they are dedicated enough to try to kill us. After accepting this fact, we need to do all that we can to prevent them from getting their way in a confrontation (i.e., they don't get to kill us).