2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #2 discussion

The Team’s takedown of the plane, highjackers and the bomb happened pretty rapidly. Your thoughts about this scene?

Fantastic action scene. One of the best ever.

I loved it as well as the build-up. Their practice sessions were enlightening and did a lot to build the suspense. I think these two parts made the present-day story.

It happened so fast it was head spinning. All that training yielded that successful outcome, even taking down the suicide bomber. If not for the doll she was carrying, she wouldn’t have even gotten that shot off on Stan. Alyssa and Jefferson were amazing.

Excellent and realistic. It reminded me of the Israeli commandos take down of the terrorists on a Sabena flight in the 80s.

When the plane was first hijacked and it was said that the terrorists got into the cockpit, I had to look at the date the book was published as I wondered how that could happen post 9/11. Then I saw the book was published in August 2001 and of course, it was probably written at least a year before that.

It was definitely pre-9/11. Hijackings were quite common until the stringent rules were implemented after that event.

Correct me if I’m wrong, Lauren, but hadn’t Israel adopted even more stringent security measures prior to 9/11?

I thought the Israelis started to increase security after the first attack on the World Trade Center even though planes weren't used then. I remember my mother and my aunt went to Israel with a church group around Easter sometime in the 90s. When they came back they talked about the security there.

Thanks, Sharon. I couldn’t recall the event but thought those measures had been in place long ago.

Jonetta wrote: "Correct me if I’m wrong, Lauren, but hadn’t Israel adopted even more stringent security measures prior to 9/11"

Yes, Israel has always had very stringent security measures since the late 70s when there were a hijackings of planes with Jews and Israelis on board.

Even before 9/11, El Al (Israeli's national airline) had a separate check-in area at international airports (passengers first go through Israeli security) before they can even check-in. An anonymous security officer is also always on the plane.

El Al planes are even equipped with defensive decoys that can be launched if a rocket is fired at the plane - this is since the Nairobi attack.

Many of the procedures that are now common place were adopted from Israeli's standard operations. Unfortunately, we have had a lot of experience in this area.

Sharon wrote: "I thought the Israelis started to increase security after the first attack on the World Trade Center even though planes weren't used then. I remember my mother and my aunt went to Israel with a chu..."

It was even before then. An El Al plane was attacked in Zurich in the late 60s, Entebbe and the Sabena hijacking were in the 70s led to more stringent security measures. Also, there have been attacks at airports Athens in 1973 and Los Angeles in 2002.

Security for El Al all over the world and of course the airport here, Ben Gurion, is always very tight. I remember sitting in a special area at Jan Smuts airport in South Africa in 1985 before our flight to Israel when we immigrated.

Thank you for the memory jog, Lauren! I remember most of those events. Doesn’t surprise me that we used the Israeli security practices to model our own.

Lauren wrote: "Sharon wrote: "I thought the Israelis started to increase security after the first attack on the World Trade Center even though planes weren't used then. I remember my mother and my aunt went to Is..."

Thanks, Lauren. I forgot about the other events. I remembered my mom and aunt talking about security after their trip.

The scenes with the team taking down the hijackers and liberating the plane was fantastic, especially after seeing how hard they practiced their drills. I liked that they went so far as to get the exact same plane to work their scenarios and make sure there would be no unforeseen problems.