Frank

The obvious answer is to require all passengers to carry guns. Only then would you be able to assure that terrorists wouldn't be able to pull any crap.

steph

Well, then, Frank, I guess each terrorist/passenger that boarded would have a gun too, oops! BUT they would be outnumbered I guess.

It's hard to imagine the job of sky marshall. I can envision them just flying all day sitting in a seat and falling asleep. Maybe they could be given other responsibilities so that they wouldn't just be sitting there. They will get awfully bored considering that most flights aren't going to contain hijackers. Would they be obvious, or plain-clothesed?

Sign Me Up

Plain-clothes officers. That way, the hijackers don't automatically know who to attack. You'd have to rotate them A LOT so that the crew didn't schmooze with them too much and blow their cover.

It would be boring, but people perform secret service jobs, and I hear those jobs are awfully dull, too. Same for court-house security jobs. Imagine if you wanted to write a book or something. Or if you just love to read. Or if you were pursuing advanced studies. Sky marshall would be a decent job because you could do whatever you want to kill the time.

Joe

They need to lock the door to the cockpit and no one in or out no matter what. Maybe arm a stewardess and captain with tasers. No matter what happens during a hijack the captain stays locked in and should get the plane on the ground safely as possible. By the way I heard air marshalls are out there, they use a special aluminum bullet which will put someone down but not pierce the skin of an aircraft.