It worked because up till that point, the purpose of hijackings had been to obtain money, release of prisoners or escape to another country. Therefore, the conventional wisdom and recommendation was to be compliant and wait for the hijacking to be over.
A plane is valuable to hostage negotiators and therefore the hijacker, only as long as it is full of live passengers.
It also worked because only one person on each plane knew the actual mission, the rest believed they were on a "normal" hijacking and left letters behind about being strong in prison.
Today, everyone knows how hijackings can end, so it would not work anymore. The 4th plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field because the passengers had learned of the other hijackings by cell phone.
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Rob
SW Montana's Online Community
Modular Model Railroading
A plane is valuable to hostage negotiators and therefore the hijacker, only as long as it is full of live passengers.
It also worked because only one person on each plane knew the actual mission, the rest believed they were on a "normal" hijacking and left letters behind about being strong in prison.
Today, everyone knows how hijackings can end, so it would not work anymore. The 4th plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field because the passengers had learned of the other hijackings by cell phone.
--
Rob
SW Montana's Online Community
Modular Model Railroading