Jet Blue Flight Attendant Arrested Following Meltdown
It’s a story still getting a lot of talk around water coolers: the Jet Blue flight attendant who snapped on a flight from Pittsburgh to New York on Monday.
38-year old Steven Slater has been arraigned on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing.
According to police, Slater got into an argument with a passenger who ignored his requests to remain seated while the plane was still taxiing at New York’s JFK airport.
She then reportedly accidentally hit him in the head with her luggage and refused to apologize. That set Slater off.
He reportedly retaliated by swearing over the intercom and announced he was quitting.
He then activated the plane’s emergency shoot and slid down to the tarmac and ran off, but not before grabbing a beer from the concession cart.
At Palm Springs International Airport, passengers were giving Slater the benefit of the doubt for the way he walked off the job.
“Maybe he has a problem in his life,” said Radu Ivanus of Palm Springs who was flying to Europe. “Maybe he’s very stressed. Who knows what his problems are.”
“I mean he left. He didn’t shoot anybody, he didn’t kill anybody. I mean no, he had just had enough and enough is enough,” said Mary Ann Guerraa who flew in from Washington DC
Slater was released from jail on $2,500 bail. If the thousands of fans on his Facebook tribute page are any indication, he’s become a sort of working man’s hero.
