Well Done Mr Slater

[Nino]

Love this story – sick of BS, curse them, quit, grab a beer, slide off and go home –

I truly sympathize with the guy :

By Robert Winnett

Published: 12:33AM BST 10 Aug 2010

Flight attendant Steven Slater ranted over the intercom, passengers said.

Steven Slater, 39, argued with a passenger who was attempting to retrieve his hand luggage from an overhead compartment while the plane from Pittsburgh to New York was still moving on the runway.

When the passenger abused Mr Slater, the "runaway" flight attendant appears to have lost his temper and dramatically resigned.

He grabbed the intercom and said: "To the passenger who called me a mother ------, ---- you.

"I've been in the business 20 years. I've had it. That's it."

Mr Slater then activated the emergency exit and slid down the inflatable slide on to the tarmac.

He then boarded a train to the terminal, stripping off his tie and discarding it to the astonishment of bemused onlookers.

He then drove to his nearby home. He was quickly arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

Mr Slater is a long-standing flight attendant who worked for budget airline Jet Blue.

According to his online profile, he has previously worked for other airlines.

His arrest appears to have triggered an online movement, with others who work in jobs which bring them in to contact with rude customers demanding his release.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/nyregion...tml?_r=2&hp

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/...ails-of-flight/

Law enforcement officials said that after the passenger cursed at Mr. Slater, he grabbed the intercom, cursed her out, bid passengers goodbye, grabbed a beer and activated the inflatable exit chute.

In court, an assistant district attorney, Benjamin Martell, said that Mr. Slater said over the plane’s intercom, “Those of you who have shown dignity and respect for 20 years, have a great ride,” before making his final exit.

When asked why Mr. Slater chose to avoid the conflict by taking the emergency slide, Mr. Turman replied, “It was right there.”

[CBL]

Beautiful! He should get a medal for standing his ground, but opening the emergency exit of a moving plane is pretty extreme There should be more accountability for customers who push people to the limit with rude behavior. On the other side some flight attendants are real assholes too

[daboose]

LOL! This reminds me of the Eastern Airlines' captain that was so fed up with the traffic in (I think) Atlanta during taxi for takeoff that he took the aircraft back to the gate and got off. He had enough. Ha!

[rckymtn22]

What about the person that started it all? Typical... gets away scot free, that is the person that should be charged.

[El Presidente]

Reading that was a lovely way to start the day

[First Lady]

Totally understand where he is coming from... I used to be a Restaurant Manager at a International Hotel Chain and being a women would be yelled at by abusive and drunk tools who though they were all mucho and tough and could push me around... they found the wrong person

I had such great enjoyment of getting them thrown out of our hotel even if one of them was one of the most recognised Racehorse trainers Australia has seen LOLOL

Hope he gets off without a charge

[El Presidente]

Totally understand where he is coming from... I used to be a Restaurant Manager at a International Hotel Chain and being a women would be yelled at by abusive and drunk tools who though they were all mucho and tough and could push me around... they found the wrong person

I had such great enjoyment of getting them thrown out of our hotel even if one of them was one of the most recognised Racehorse trainers Australia has seen LOLOL

Hope he gets off without a charge

That was before you found the light and came to work with one of the worlds most benevolent and enlightened bosses. The days since have been but a joyous cavalcade of laughter and self fulfillment!

[MIKA27]

Great post Nino.

It's always the same case no matter where one goes. The innocent are the ones who land themselves in trouble whilst the bastards causing the issue at hand walk away without any reprimands.

I loved the attendants touch by grabbing a beer and exiting the plane James Bond style!!

[kafreeman]

This guy is great... lastest I read is he looked for anyone below before he deployed the inflatable ramp, and the plane was stopped.

I hope he gets off without any charges, but he's already in the slammer.

[rdb6]

A few years ago a bus driver in NYC did something similar. Instead of just giving 2 weeks notice he took his bus and drove 1500 miles before being quitting his job. Congratulations Mr. Slater you are being hailed as a hero, the every man if you will. Mr. Slater is currently on vacation at Rikers Island, the absolute garden spot of the penal world. He couldn't post the $2500 bail. He is looking at 7 years in prison for his escapades. He will probably get parole.

[cigcars]

I suppose I'm to be the lone voice of some dissent...I've spent the better part of 30yrs. of my 45yr. working life with the public. Yes, I KNOW they can cause you to have to go & take a chill pill at times. Yet, I don't think I could ever let a lousy, stinkin' (yes I said it) person I have to deal with during the day cause me to quit my job. My SUPERVISOR being a constant, whinging, pinging pain in my arse - that's another story!

[Nino]

This guy is great... lastest I read is he looked for anyone below before he deployed the inflatable ramp, and the plane was stopped.

I hope he gets off without any charges, but he's already in the slammer.

Last I've heard is that bail has been provided - and yes, he was professional enough to check before deploying the slide.

I truly like this guy, even under arrest he kept smiling so the experience must have made him a happy man. Well done !

More details :

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/08/10/n...6&wom=false

[partagasd4]

He worked for Jet Blue? We can't blame him for acting this way.

[anacostiakat]

Even his ex-wife is impressed.

[Nino]

Here is a Chinese newsreel of the story with a great comic strip animation.

They picture him sliding off a B-747 ( it was a small Embraer ) - wrong plane but great animation

And yes, even his ex is impressed, the guy must have hit a nerve - well done.

[OZCUBAN]

Great post Nino

I am sure you have seen your fair share of abusive passengers

I have one motto in life ,be nice to people and good manners cost absolutely nothing

Cheers OZ

[cigcars]

Great post Nino

I am sure you have seen your fair share of abusive passengers

I have one motto in life ,be nice to people and good manners cost absolutely nothing

Cheers OZ

Here here!

[Ken Gargett]

good on him.

i was on a plane in russia a few years back and passengers were ignoring the attendant who wanted them to sit down as the plane was taxi-ing. finally this woman grabbed the intercom and said, and i swear this is true, "you must sit down as they built the wheels too close to one end and if you move, the plane might tip over".

greatest rush for the idiots to get back in their seats you could imagine.

[cigcars]

[Kangaroo495]

good on him.

i was on a plane in russia a few years back and passengers were ignoring the attendant who wanted them to sit down as the plane was taxi-ing. finally this woman grabbed the intercom and said, and i swear this is true, "you must sit down as they built the wheels too close to one end and if you move, the plane might tip over".

greatest rush for the idiots to get back in their seats you could imagine.

This actually might be true. There are some commercial aeroplanes here, where people at the front are not allowed to sit down until the plane has taken off. Apparently they all have to crowd around towards the back of the plane in order to "balance" it.

[CanuckSARTech]

Just read this thread now, but I heard about it the other day.

I listen to a sports/talk radio station out of Detroit, Michigan. This is just about all that's been talked about throughout the U.S. the last few days - his actions struck a huge nerve with everyone, positive and negative, and everyone seems to be polarized to either side of the issue (noooo, you don't say - the U.S. is polarized to either extreme on issues?!?!!! Wow!).

Funny story. From what I was hearing, other passengers were saying that the rude passenger was definitely excessive. And the best was taking the beer on the way out - roadie!

[MIKA27]

Flight attendant Steven Slater wants job back

Source: Ninemsn.com.au

The fed-up flight attendant who set a new standard for quitting when he abandoned his job via an emergency chute apparently isn't as much of a quitter as everyone thought.

Steven Slater, 38, said through his lawyer Thursday that he loves flying and wants to go back to work.

"His hope is to return to the aviation business," his attorney, Howard Turman, told reporters as Slater stood by his side outside his home in Queens. Flying, he added, "is in his blood."

Slater's career appeared to end Monday when he went onto the public address system after a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh, cursed out a passenger he said had treated him rudely, and then made an I'm-outta-here exit down an emergency chute at Kennedy Airport. He was arrested.

Slater said that he had fantasised about using the emergency chute.

"It was great — I always wanted to do it," he told reporters outside his home.

Asked about Slater's desire to return to work, JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said: "As of right now, he has been released of duty pending the investigation. There's nothing more I can say."

Slater's actions have prompted an outpouring of support from people who have fantasised about making a similar exit from an unpleasant job, although passengers have come forward in the past couple of days to criticise him as brusque and cranky throughout the 90-minute trip. One passenger portrayed Slater as the instigator, saying he cursed without provocation at a woman who had asked about her bag.

Slater would not talk about his actions Thursday. He smiled silently for most of the 10-minute news conference, then offered a brief thanks to the public, saying, "It's been amazing, the support and love ... everything that's been brought to me."

Turman denied Slater was belligerent and said the entire affair can be blamed on a "lack of civility on the part of one passenger."

Some passengers said he might have been disturbed by an injury. They said he had a large cut or welt on his head - sustained, his lawyer said, when he tried to help a passenger with a bag too big for the overhead bins.

Lauren Dominijanni, 25, of Pittsburgh, said that during the trip, when she asked Slater for a wipe to clean up coffee that had been spilled on her seat, he rolled his eyes, blurted an exasperated "What?" and gestured to the gash on his head. He then told her he needed to take care of himself first, she said.

Other passengers said that throughout the flight, he slammed galley doors and overhead bins unnecessarily and put an apparent early end to snack service.

Others said that until Slater's intercom rant, his interactions with passengers appeared curt, but not unusually so in a time when flight attendants are often asked to play hall monitor.

Howard Deneroff, a radio executive for Westwood One, overheard Slater telling a passenger at the start of the flight that her bag wouldn't fit in the overhead bin and would need to be checked, but nothing about the conversation struck him as out of the ordinary.

"I didn't hear any cursing," he said. He said he also didn't hear Slater get injured.

Later, after the plane landed, he and other travellers heard Slater and other crew members repeatedly instruct a passenger to remain seated until the jet reached the gate. The traveller apparently didn't listen. Slater ultimately had to leave his seat to get the person to sit down.

By some accounts, it wasn't until the very end of the flight that things went haywire.

Marjorie Briskin, 53, told The Wall Street Journal that Slater launched an expletive at a female passenger without provocation after she inquired about the whereabouts of her bag, which had been checked at the gate when it couldn't fit in a storage bin.

"It really blew my mind. It was so inappropriate," Briskin said. She described Slater as "disturbed."

Deneroff said Slater announced over the intercom that a passenger had just cursed at him, then he cursed back at the passenger, thanked the rest of those aboard for being civil, and said he was through with the job.

"The people next to us were like, 'Welcome to New York,"' Deneroff said.

Some authorities said that Slater had grabbed at least one beer from the jet's galley before jumping out. Turman denied that his client had been drinking during the flight.

Slater faces charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing.

His boyfriend, Kenneth Rochelle, told reporters outside his home Thursday that Slater is a "lovely, classy, beautiful person," who was ordinarily very patient with passengers, and loved his job.

And his lawyer said: "Everybody who knows him knows that he's a likable man" and "for the most part, somebody that likes people."

He said his client had performed his job "efficiently, effectively and properly" over a 20-year career. Turman also said Slater liked JetBlue and regarded it as "a fair and understanding airline."

MIKA: Perhaps there's more than meets the eye with this now that more witnesses have stated a few things that seem to state this guy was having a bad day from the beginning....?

[Nino]

If he really is throwing in the towel so fast, he's a "rebel without a clue" .....

[CanuckSARTech]

Two sides to every story.

Before you know it, we'll have the tabloids pulling up stories from a neighbour or someone from long ago, telling us of how he got D's in school, and was abused by his mother/father, his pet was killed by a runaway cabbie, etc., etc., and therefore he has post-aggressive-anxiety-disorder, or something of the like.

And/or, some other passenger will finally come out, and say how the passenger lady with the bag intentionally hit Slater in the head with the overhead-bin door, and he was noble in being so courteous for so long.

If only it was just clearcut.

No matter what - funny way to go down in a fireball of a statement. Kind of takes all the fun out of just simply and plainly saying, "...take this job and shove it!"