Here’s the short story: a couple of Muslims at Chicago book a direct flight to Amsterdam. They went through the scanner just fine, but the airport security team was put on heightened alert due to one of the two’s “bulky clothing”. The contents of that bulky clothing included $7000 and a knife that was deemed legal. While on the flight, US calls the Netherlands and says, “Watch out for these guys, they’re highly suspect.” Arrival baggage scans revealed “mock bombs”, or cellphones tied to Pepto Bismol bottles. They were arrested for attempting to blow the flight up. Sky News has the juicy details.
This phenomenon is being called a “dry run”. In dry runs, terrorists mock out what they will do to capture flights and cause general terrorism. If you see a crew of people doing suspicious things on your flight (like one guy getting up to use the restroom, flipping a hand signal to somebody else to move toward first class who then signals a guy in first class to seize the cockpit); you should probably take action immediately, and damn the consequences. There is no airport security (unless the stewards or stewardesses attempt to act as security; something tells me they won’t do a good job), so it is up to the citizens to take security into their own hands. Teamwork is of the essence as well; since they work in teams.