I was specifically asked for my reaction to this video.
This is the first account I've actually heard in English, not from reading a transcript.
First of all, many of you may not know this, but I am an honor graduate of the United States Army Anti-Terrorism course. As such, I have some expertise in this area.
What I can tell you is that somewhere along the line, there was a security failure and a failure to use imagination. To defeat the terrorists before they strike, you have to train yourself to think as they do. You have to become devious in your thinking, and you have to imagine how you would do something like this. Obviously, the co-pilot has spent time thinking about it and may or may not have had help planning it.
However, putting that aside, I wanted to say that this pilot is an absolute hero.
He reminds me of something I learned when I went to Recruit Training for the United States Marine Corps long ago, in 1983: You must always push yourself mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally further than you think you can go. You have to go beyond your limits to go to the next level to succeed. That, obviously, has been this man's mindset throughout his life. That mindset pushed him to make that last effort to open that cockpit door.
Without it, this would have been a tragedy.
The most telling thing, for me, is that he does not consider himself a hero. That, to me, shows how much humility he has, which is the hallmark of a true hero.
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