"I've been trying to think of what kind of torture might conceivably get a terrorist on a plane set to explode, who has already committed himself to die in the explosion, to actually talk." - MGOH

You miss the point entirely Kevin. What you, as one of the innocents about to die in that hour do is what we are talking about. Whether you get the information out of him or not, is neither here nor there.

Anyone who says that having been given that information they would just sit down and ask this chap nicely to please change his mind is a liar.

Your only way out is to make him tell you what you need to know.

My contention is that the people on that aircraft would have no qualms whatsoever about torture in such circumstances, and no you cannot put the aircraft down on the sea the bomb is pressure sensitive and besides no wide body airliner has ever successfully landed on water.