Well, well, well. Seems there IS a motive for keeping the whole thing hush-hush, after all. "No, really, flying is the SAFEST way to travel, really it is! Trust me! Will that be cash or credit card?"
You may be closer to the truth than you realize.
From day one, JOB One has been to "avoid panic" at all costs.
The best explanation I can come up with for this obvious behavior is a "good enough for government work" application of "game theory", i.e., "If nothing's gonna happen, but, people panic anyway, it all goes to hell. On the other hand, if it all goes to hell, and people don't panic, well, nothing lost."
The "truth table" from that little mental exercize reveals that the ONLY "good outcome" is provided by a scenario in which two conditions exist: 1) "nothing happens", and 2) "panic is avoided".
In all other cases, "we're screwed."
So, IMO it's a safe bet that no matter WHAT happens, the "avoid panic" propagandists will be out in droves, assuring us that we're nuts to even imagine that anything untoward might have occurred.
When it gets amusing is when there's a conflict between the social-control efforts and the CYA efforts.
That happens when the "Forces of CYA" issue warnings about things to be on the lookout for -- and then, when they happen, the "Forces of Don't Panic" trip over their shoelaces assuring us that only a complete paranoid would ever think that "what happened" was anyting at all to worry about -- even though it's precisely what the other bunch just got finished warning us might happen!
So, one bunch of manipulators warns us to be on the lookout for middle eastern men behaving strangely on airplanes, trying to assemble multiple-part explosives in the bathrooms.
Then, when it's observed, the other bunch of propagandists descends like a cloud of mosquitoes, berating anyone who reports it as being "paranoid", "racist", and "biggoted."
Ah, doublethink. Gotta love it. And hate it. At the same time! ;)
Which may explain why no additional passengers (to our knowledge) have come forward to corroborate. They don't want to be labeled "paranoid," "racist," or "bigot" as Annie Jacobsen so publically was by the federal big-shots.