Lets say you were on the plane. As I understand it, the "hostages" did not know who was flying the plane, plus they were told by the hijackers that they had bombs.

Being "heroic" when you don't know the intention of the hijackers would be incredibly selfish because one would be risking the lives of the children, women and men on the plane.

If the pilot were injured and removed from the cockpit, meaning the plane was being flown by the hijackers, then that could possibly be motivation to not let one's fate be decided by a hijacker flying the plane.