I keep coming across quotes like "The plot was foiled by nonexpert civilians". That's complete BS! The perpetrator had his chemicals mixed and ignited by the ti

I keep coming across quotes like "The plot was foiled by nonexpert civilians". That's complete BS! The perpetrator had his chemicals mixed and ignited by the time any of the people around him got wind of what he was doing. His "bomb" had already gone off and set his balls on fire. The civilian reaction consisted in nothing more than subduing a failed would-be terrorist who was flailing around in pain from his burning leg. What stopped this terrorist was his own incompetence, combined with that of the people who set up his equipment. Without these two factors, the "spirited civilians" sitting around him would be hurtling, screaming, through a hole in the plane's broken fuselage. Well-meaning but uninformed people are calling out for more inter-passenger watchfulness. There are a number of remedies that can be expected to help significantly, but recruiting passengers and cabin crew as intelligence personnel is IMHO way down on the list.