“My friend said everyone was stunned, and then he shouted ‘Beat them!'” That set off the Chinese passenger action that halted the hijacking, sent the plane back to the airport after 22 minutes, and might have saved lives.
The passengers rose together to subdue all six hijackers, tying them up with their belts. They might have even beaten two of them to death. Rough justice, yes, but it sent an unequivocal message to terrorists about hijacking commercial flights in China.
Admittedly, it’s a report from Chinese state media, and Uighur activist groups say it was just a seating dispute, not a hijacking. But there are an awful lot of cell phone photographs of the incident and Chinese witness accounts to suggest a hijack attempt.