[supercat]

I would like to be the one to start it. I would have visibly armed attendants, and uniformed guards by the cockpit!

Flight attendants must, in the ordinary course of operations, get way too close to potentially-malevolent people for them to be armed safely unless they have some sort of "holster lock" to prevent them from being disarmed. Otherwise two or three people, properly situated, could easily take out a flight attendent.

[Dan Evans]

Flight attendants must, in the ordinary course of operations, get way too close to potentially-malevolent people for them to be armed safely

Assuming Al Qaida was allowed on in the first place. Our hypothetical airline would operate like Israel does -- they look for terrorists, not weapons. And wouldn't Al Qaida prefer to hijack an airplane where they knew everyone was disarmed instead of one where everyone could be armed?

[dread78645]

Flight attendants must, in the ordinary course of operations, get way too close to potentially-malevolent people for them to be armed safely unless they have some sort of "holster lock" to prevent them from being disarmed. Otherwise two or three people, properly situated, could easily take out a flight attendent.

Uhhm ... If the rest of the passengers are armed, what would be the difference?

On this hypothetical "Freedom Air", the "malevolent people" wouldn't have to disarm the flight attendant, they could bring their own guns, box-cutters, etc.