The last US hijacking was in 1990, when a hijacker claimed to have a bomb but it turned out later it was a fake. Before that, in 1987 a man threatened to start a fire using a cigarette lighter and a packet of chemicals. There was one in 1983, and a couple in 1980, but the majority of them happened prior to 1973 when basic security checkpoints were instituted.

There were no notable hijackings in the US between 1990 and 2001.

The reason 9/11 was so successful is because people expected it to be like historical scenarios where the hijackers make a little threat, get the plane diverted, and no one dies. Back then, a hijacking was seen as something like an unruly flier today - a little scary, but not too much more than an inconvenience.

After 9/11, people realized that planes could be used as guided missiles by dedicated actors. That the goal is no longer to get attention, but to plow a jet loaded with fuel into any structure in the US. Everyone realized that allowing an attacker to take control of the aircraft was a potential death sentence to everyone on board, not to mention any targets on the ground.

To counter this threat, they instituted two positive reforms: bulletproof, locking cockpit doors, and armed air marshals. No longer would pilots respond to a threat in the cabin of the aircraft, allowing the attackers to control the plane directly or indirectly, and an air marshal on board can eliminate any actual threat to passengers.

Hijackings didn’t stop in response to TSA security theater. There was already a drastic reduction after basic and minimal security measures were introduced at the airports in 1973, and by the 1980s they were super uncommon and after 1990 they had already vanished.

TSA security theater also didn’t stop casual hijackings, as many previous hijacking’s used the threat of fake bombs or fires, something that enhanced security will do nothing to prevent. Instead, it was the stakes of hijacking that escalated, meaning any casual threat is treated as the worst case scenario and dealt with as such. Any would-be hijacker knows that they can’t get to the cockpit, and even if no air marshal is on board or thinks that they can subdue them, knows that the passengers will assume they’re all going to die and attack them.

Ironically, TSA security theater doesn’t actually do what it was intended to do - stop another 9/11 style attack. There are so many instances of security failing to do its job; their failure rates should be absolutely terrifying to anyone who believes they’re actually protecting us from hijackings as firearms and knives frequently make their way onto planes. All it does is inconvenience travelers and make simpletons feel safer, while costing us civil liberties and taxpayer dollars.

The actual, effective reforms were cheap and invisible. The TSA screening at the airports is a bullshit waste of time and money. If anyone wanted to do a mass casualty event with a bomb, they’d get to the middle of a crowded TSA security line and detonate rather than try to board a plane.

Taking bets its because airplanes have much higher security such as locked cabin doors with limited access. But sure its the guy strip searching you for having 5 ounces of water.

You realize other countries that don't have TSA don't have hijackings right?

We had hundreds of hijackings in the 20th century, culminating in 9/11, the first time an airplane was used as a weapon of mass destruction. Since 9/11, following the subsequent addition of TSA and stronger protocols, we haven't had any more hijackings.

25 years of success would suggest that TSA, or at least the enhanced security protocols that included TSA, combined with better focused intelligence, has worked to eliminate the threat of hijacking, more or less.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

The 9/11 hijackers were able to take over aircraft with ceramic knives and shit because they were playing by new rules - the passengers expected to be able to survive if they just cooperated because thats how past hijackings had worked.

If anyone tries to take over a plane with a fucking knife post 9/11 they're going to get the shit beaten out of them. That is by far the primary reason for the decline in hijackings - passengers no longer have any reasonable expectation of survival through cooperation.

The only way to overwhelm all the passengers is with guns and simple pre-9/11 metal detectors were sufficient to detect those.

You should do a little reading on how many tests TSA absolutely fails. And anecdotally, I've read countless folks who accidentally took prohibited items on board.

TSA is pure security theatre.

Reporters have proven time and time again it's really easy to smuggle stuff past TSA. They're incompetent and only there for the "security theater"

Enhanced security was a good idea, but you just have to fly internationally to see that TSA is such a fuck-up. Unclear instructions, napoleon complexes, arbitrary rules that make no sense. It's stuff like that, that makes it security theater. Every foreign airport I've flown through has baggage checks and some sort of body scanning. The other rules are clearly posted and not arbitrary. Like come on peanut butter is not a liquid.

And don't even get me started on customs/Border control. I've entered foreign countries with less questions than reentering my home country. It's a mess