When a terrorist group with a vague ideology and an even more unclear goal hijack an airplane, who you gonna call? The government. Nah, they'll just bring unlimited resources and do it for free. What you need is a group of colorful mercenaries who operate out of a van and charge you a lot of money.
You don't go into an 80s action show expecting anything approaching reality, and that's okay, because quite frankly reality sucks. You want to see likeable good guys take on mustache twisting bad guys and ultimately prevail; all within the 50 minute mark. Once again, The A-Team delivers. The bulk of the credit for the relative success of this episode (and series in general) goes to the four leads; particularly Dwight Schultz. He brings %100 in every scene, and his "Howling Mad" Murdock is an absolute hoot.