Interesting but potentially depressing article on suicide terrorism:

Few answers for suicide terrorism

March 26 -- Continental Flight 11 blew up on a clear May night over Iowa, its tail shattered. Pilot Fred Gray wrestled the Boeing 707 back to a relatively level pitch and probably could have landed it had its tail not disintegrated.

Puts me in mind of....

The Atlantic | November 2001 | The Crash of EgyptAir 990 | Langewiesche

Two years afterward the U.S. and Egyptian governments are still quarreling over the cause—a clash that grows out of cultural division, not factual uncertainty. A look at the flight data from a pilot's perspective, with the help of simulations of the accident, points to what the Egyptians already know: the crash was caused not by any mechanical failure but by a pilot's intentional act.

Of course, the NTSB just released their final report concerning Flight 990, and did indeed say the co-pilot deliberately crashed the aircraft. They did not identify a motive.

Which leads to an interesting question: How do you stop a suicide aircraft when it's the pilot who is the suicidal one?

Answer: You can't.