By now you've probably heard the story of Steven Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant who abruptly resigned after being allegedly assaulted by a passenger as the plane taxied to the JFK terminal following a flight to Pittsburgh.
According to reports, Slater had an altercation with a passenger who had tried to remove luggage from an overhead compartment before the plane was securely berthed at the Jetway. Slater got on the intercom and made some inappropriate comments about the passenger over the plane's public address system, then deployed the emergency exit chute and grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and left the plane uttering, "It's been great."
Slater was arrested by police at his home a short time later and he faces up to seven years in prison for his actions on the plane. The passenger who caused the disruption was neither identified nor arrested.
Slater has become a folk hero to some for the dramatic and comedic way he ended his employment at JetBlue. Service people take a lot of nonsense from customers and obviously this incident was the last straw for Slater.
It will be interesting to see if the U.S. Attorney decides to be lenient in the prosecution of Mr. Slater. I wonder where that passenger who alledgedly struck Mr. Slater is. If the allegations are true, this individual should be prosectuted to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise condoning this behavior will only encourage other passengers to take actions like this one.
Certainly Mr. Slater could have restrained his impulses, but he also could have acted out in a violent manner. Only time will tell if his punishment fit the crime.
An alternate headline for this post was Job opening at JetBlue.
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Comments
Rated with hugs
Good post, Sheepie. Rated. D
Lucy -- I'm ambivalent about Mr. Slater's behavior as I've seen flight attendents take a lot of passenger abuse. I am with you on prosecuting the passenger. If I were a passenger on the flight and I was inconvenienced, I'd file a civil suit against the passenger. If he stayed in his seat, none of this would have happened.
Leah -- the airline didn't report this to police until 20 minutes after the incident took place. they have to explain that delay to authorities.
Yarn over -- That practice means someone is going to get hurt.
Kathy -- I can't wait for him to hit the talk show circuit.
Jet Blue has great flight attendants - this one particularly!
I do understand his frustration.
aim -- I like to know about the passenger, age, gender, occupation. address and phone number.
John -- You are correct.
Bonnie -- He can plead temporary insanity due to head trauma. After dealing with all the abuse, sentence him to "time served." The only way he gets on an airplane again is if he buys a ticket.
Smithery -- I thought the headline was clever.
Mr E -- Any way the airlines can raise revenue they will.
Lea -- Whew, I thought you were going to say you were on the flight.
Chuck -- Sadly, yes.
Leon -- Meet the prosecuting attorney.
Jonathan -- Back to the 1970s.
Trilogy -- Yes indeed.
Caroline -- There are a few employers I've worked for where I would have wanted to make a similar exit.
sophieh -- That's a lot of comments.
MTK -- You said "I think people have become too accustomed to rudeness and basic poor manners." Well this took place about a US air carrier, didn't it?
(R)ated for giving billions of voyeurs around the world a momentary flash of virtual freedom with beer.
I'm reading OS and squinting my eyes to see who faults this guy. C'mon, stop being robots. The guy was frustrated. He got fed up. He got creative. He has some spirit.
One of my least favorite posters is all disgusted with him, and I'm disgusted with anyone who is disgusted with this guy.
This is a great story cause it lets us all discuss how ridiculous so many jobs are, nowadays, and how so many people are just so inconsiderate.
Then, you have your schoolmarm robot people all appalled. Fascinating.
THE ULTIMATE FLOUNCE!!!!
The only thing that may save this guys ass is if people start on Jet Blue to drop everything. I'm sure they have seen the support for him.
The passenger I think could be facing worse charges than the flight attendant. It's a federal crime to interfere with the movement of an aircraft.
And I hadn't really thought of this, re: the passenger:
"If the allegations are true, this individual should be prosectuted to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise condoning this behavior will only encourage other passengers to take actions like this one."
So true.
The words of attorney Lawrence Taylor come to mind:
“Science, if you can define it, would be, I would say, the systematic pursuit of truth. The objectives of law are very different. It is a governmental mechanism for imposing order, structure, predictability, security, and confidence of the public in its institutions. The law is not concerned with truth…The legal system is not concerned with justice, either. It is concerned with expediency, not justice.”