I hadn't particularly planned on watching it, but I caught it last night.

Not bad, and I think it shows promise, at least as far as being realistic and providing decent information. I don't recall really rolling my eyes at any of the suggestions. Oh, except for using the cell phone as a diversion. That seemed almost James Bond-ish to me, but in all fairness, the point was to create a diversion. Whether you used the cell phone or not was beside the point.

Landing a commercial airliner seems crazy, but the Mythbusters also demonstrated that it's possible for untrained people to successfully be talked through a landing (at least in a simulator) so I wouldn't say it's impossible.

There was one thing that I thought was lacking, which is typical on TV shows that suggest violence (and I'm not claiming any sort of fighting competence!). It was about taking on the knife wielding hijackers. Although he suggests using something as a shield and making the comment that in a knife fight, the one who bleeds least, wins, I didn't think the show really made clear that you're going to be cut in a knife fight. None of the good guys bleed after subduing the bad guys even though the show isn't shy about showing blood.

Granted, adrenaline may mask the pain, but are most folks mentally prepared to be cut or stabbed? On the show, they basically just dog piled on the hijackers, but if you ever watch those security videos from prison attacks, it's not uncommon to be stabbed and slashed multiple times in any encounter. Would the average person keep going after getting ice picked a few times in quick succession? Maybe not, if you're not mentally ready to keep fighting.

Of course, the show throws a lot of information at you (well, they do have to fill up an hour!). In the heat of a life or death situation, I doubt most of us will remember even 5% of something we watched on a TV show a couple years ago. Once that adrenaline is pumping, only the most basic decisions or well rehearsed actions are going to kick in.

I'm also wondering, post-9/11, what kind of terrorism training flight attendants have received and whether they would take a more active leadership role than they did on the TV show last night?

To me, these programs are still primarily entertainment, but I think I might make a point to catch the next one, which is more near and dear to me--an office building fire.