A flight attendant furious with passengers who refused to follow his instructions told them off over the loudspeaker before pulling the chute to make his own dramatic personal emergency exit, US police said.
The attendant, identified in the US media as Steven Slater, 39, was working a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh to New York that had just landed, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Slater told passengers to remain seated upon landing. But when a passenger started collecting his belongings from the overhead bin, disregarding the instructions, Slater tried to stop him but was hit in the head by the baggage and became irate.
When Slater "asked for an apology", the passenger "instead cursed at him", The New York Times reported.
Slater "got on the plane's public address system and cursed out all aboard. Then he activated the inflatable evacuation slide at service exit R1, launched himself off the plane, an Embraer 190, ran to the employee parking lot and left the airport in a car he had parked there".
The attendant snatched a beer from the galley before jumping on the slide, ABC News reported.
His silver-screen-worthy escape was short-lived.
Police arrested Slater shortly after at his home nearby in Queens.
"There were no injuries and all customers deplaned the aircraft safely through the jetway," the airline said in a statement.
"At this time, we are working with the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to investigate the incident. At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crew members at risk."
According to ABC, Slater was charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
A Facebook fan page says an appeal fund will be set up to help pay for his court costs.
Many users have logged onto the page expressing their support for Mr Slater.
‘’I love your level of customer service! So refreshing! Sometimes a-holes need to be called a-holes,’’ one wrote.
AFP and Paul Tatnell
Link here:
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/tra ... 20100810-11ul9.html

This guy deserves a medal! The customer is not always right especially if they are A-Holes and being ignorant! People often need to be told of and this guy did mother of tell off's! LOL!

I read that this morning. I cracked up when i read this

http://longisland.newsday.com/ga ... ny/pdf/20100810.pdf

" According to NBC, Slater may
have been having sex when he
was arrested"   

I just saw a video showing the police escorting the fight attendant in handcuffs along with another dude in handcuffs.  I wonder if he was having sex with that guy when arrested?

I feel bad for the guy because he actually got a cut on his head from the luggage that was pulled out by the passenger when the aircraft was still moving.  I think SHE should have had charges for assault and battery, but instead this guy is facing up to 7 years in prison.

this was quite funny.
alot of people are on his side.
people are asking to pay his bail.

I thought B6 flew only Airbuses.

I like the fact he grabbed a beer on the way out to funny.

Its been reported his is gay

Hehe, was an awesome read yesterday, but you know ... there are travellers who are completely inconsiderate and deservingly should be designated to a "no class" section of the plane with his/her other primate travellers.

yes. i wondered about that.
he seems effeminate. but there was an interview with his ex-wife who was supporting him.
so i am not sure.

I'm sure we all have stories about people behaving badly on planes. I don't know how airline staff deal with some people!

Air travel seems to bring out the very worst in people.

I heard that some of the other passengers on the plane have contacted the airline saying the idiot passenger deserved a dressing-down and giving their support for Slater. Sounds like he wasn't the only one who was annoyed at this partiulcar passenger...

America is so crazy in this way.  The laws are you have a duty to retreat if you feel you are in physical harm.  In other words you must run away at danger.

Apparently he was attacked by a passenger.  He was assaulted by baggage.  Since there were no air marshals aboard the flight because no air marshall responded to his comments over the PA system.  The next logical thing is to run off the plane before the passenger chases him, and harms him some more.  

The beer is probably a make shift weapon that was trained to flight attendents to use against an attacker in this case a unruly passenger with baggage.  That may choose to continue to chase him out of the plane.  Since the plane is on the ground, the duty
to retreat rule applies to run away from the conflict when it arises.

By obeying this rule, he is now a criminal.  It's a damn if you do, damned if you don't situation.  Can't win, being harrassed, assasulted, and threatened by a passenger, fight back and it's an instant arrest.  Stay on the plane and get beat up for the entire flight.  The only choice is to jump off the emergency slide off the plane to escape the danger.

There is more to the story according to Wall Street Journal.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... d=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5

Besides those passengers who supported Mr. Slater, his colleagues on the plane supported his actions too by deliberately delaying 25 minutes from the time he activated the emergency chute til the time AirBlue notified authorities.  In those 25 minutes, Mr. Slater was able to slide down the chute, walk to the employee parking lot, get in his car, and drive away without being stopped by authorities.  

But there are other passengers who think Mr. Slater instigated the whole incident as he was quite rude to a number of passengers during the flight.

Things never look so simple when reading the news.

Edited : add link to wsj article

[ Last edited by  doghead at 12-8-2010 19:57 ]

Yes, things are not what they seem.  Apparently, Mr. Slater's mom is recovering from cancer so he probably has the whole weight on his shoulders.  The airlines should have some standard issie stun gun to "tase" any rude passengers.  Interestlingly, I hear that the passenger in question may be a female.

the popularity of this story in the news really shows you what american culture has become.
Its a unique story, and funny as hell.... but this guy has become an instant mini-celebrity!?

Doesn't the news or talkshows have something better to discuss?