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Best Non-TV Story of the Day: Wouldn’t We All Like to Quit Our Jobs With This Kind of Flourish

Aug 10, 2010  •  Post A Comment

We all daydream of making some grand flourish when we quit a job. Here’s a guy who actually did it.

According to numerous media accounts, Steven Slater, 38, who had been a flight attendant for years, was on a JetBlue plane the other day that had just landed at JFK airport. The plane wasn’t at the gate yet and some passenger jumped up and started to get his bag from the overhead compartment.

We’ll pick up the New York Times account of the story from here: "Mr. Slater instructed the person to remain seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater reached the passenger just as the person was pulling down the luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head.

"Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger instead cursed at him. Mr. Slater got on the plane’s public-address system and cursed out the passenger for all to hear. Then, after declaring that 20 years in the airline industry was enough, he blurted out, ‘It’s been great!’ "

Slatter then grabbed a beer from the beverage cart and, according to the Times, "activated the inflatable evacuation slide at a service exit and left the world of flight attending behind."

Once on the ground he ran to his car in the employee parking lot and went home.

Unfortunately for Slater, he was later arrested. Evidently you can’t just deploy an airplane’s evaculation slide if you’re pissed at a passenger. "According to a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, Slater was being charged with 2nd- and 4th-degree criminal mischief, 1st- and 2nd-degree reckless endangerment and criminal trespass in the 3rd degree," CBS News reported.

steven slater.jpg

4 Comments

  1. @ Steve,
    Too many passengers (number is growing) are self absorbed ASZ holes. Fat, obnoxious putzes who don’t have the least bit of respect for those who are there to serve them from offering a beverage to seeing that they arrive alive. I can only find fault in one task before you exited the plane: You should have full face punched then body slammed that ASZ wipe passenger. If you were going to get in trouble, you could have kept the tape and started a service to show other passengers what could happen when they act like b u ttheads and run their mouths.
    Other than that, you were spot on.

  2. Really! The attendant should hav ethrown the passenger out the door and down the evaculation slide. Working with the public is the worst job ever. Good for you Mr. Slater!

  3. Mr. Slater could possibly have had the passenger charged with assault and even SUED him for what happened on the plane. How do we know this was “an accident” that he hit Mr. Slater in the head? Plus, the passenger was openly defying not Mr. Slater, but FAA safety rules in opening the luggage compartment while the plane was still taxiing (if I understood this correctly.)
    Anyway, I am with Mr. Slater all the while. He is not the one who should be charged here when all is said and done, or at least not *the only one*.

  4. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

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