Steven Slater, career flight attendant, was pushed over the brink. A great flight attendant for over two decades, a passenger thought it was appropriate to mistreatment him for doing his job. Slater, a Jet Blue flight attendant at the time, cursed the man over the intercom, opened the door of the plane and engaged the emergency exit slide, leaving the tarmac on foot. He has been charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief among other things.
A plane case of a man pushed too far
According to CNN, Jet Blue Flight 1052 landed at JFK International Airport from Pittsburgh. As the plane taxied toward the terminal, a passenger stood up to retrieve his bag too early, and he was told by flight attendant Steven Slater he had to sit back down. Precisely what happened isn’t known, but it is clear that Slater was struck by either the bag falling from the overhead bin or the traveler struck him. The passenger swore at Slater after refusing to apologize. Slater took over the intercom, cursed the cretin, and announced he was quitting. He grabbed some beer from the galley before engaging the emergency inflatable slide to exit the plane. He was arrested at his home later.
Pressurized cabin
When Slater was not working, as outlined by MSN, he was rarely home. His roommate reported that Slater often flew to Thousand Oaks, Calif., to care for his ailing mother, as he had done for his father. According to the New York Times, his mother had also been a flight attendant. His father, formerly a pilot, had perished from Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Customers really can be wrong
The service trades are not as easy as one might think, and they should not be maltreated at all. Any person who has worked within the service trades for any length of time, be it in a restaurant or movie theater, knows just how awful the public can be at times. Mistakes do sometimes get made, but cooperating and being polite cost nothing.
Additional reading
MSNBC
msnbc.msn.com/id/38629517/ns/travel-news/
CNN
cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/08/10/new.york.escape.chute.opened/?hpt=C2
NY Times
nytimes.com/2010/08/10/nyregion/10attendant.html?_r=1 and hp
