[wingless]

According to Wikipedia there have been 6 notable hijackings in the last 5 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_hijackings#20...

There are roughly 100k commercial flights per day, 36m flights per year.

Therefore, the probability of your flight being hijacked is 1 in 30 million, which is an absurdly low number. Note that only one of the 6 hijackings resulted in casualties, so the mortality rate even lower.

[kough]

Most likely due to the TSA's efforts! Can you imagine how many would be hijacked if there weren't a TSA?

[chris_va]

Ah, the good old days...

The history of airport security is somewhat interesting. There wasn't a TSA for long time, and the hijackings/flying to Cuba got annoying, so metal detectors were added.

Everything else since then hasn't made much sense.

[splat]

Interestingly, another approach that was seriously considered was to build a fake "Havana airport" in southern Florida and have the planes land there instead.

http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/skyjacking/

[thaumasiotes]

Yes. Six, possibly even six and a half, flights every five years.

The low rate of hijacking is due to the scarcity of people interested in doing it, not the difficulty. Same reason your house doesn't get burgled every day.

[deelowe]

And none were in the US.