And, historically speaking, they would have been absolutely right in that assumption.
Except for today.
Specifically, on the flight on which Barbara Olsen flew, she was told by her husband, Ted (via phone), about the two hijacked aircraft that crashed into the WTC towers. They knew, therefore, that the odds were great that they, too, would be used for such a suicide mission. However, they were unarmed. IF a few of them had been armed, there's no doubt this would have been headed off. That's all I'm saying; NOT second-guessing the passengers' actions (or inactions) today.