Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

JetBlue, known for its cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages, recently gained notoriety for a flight attendant, Steven Slater, who told off a plane full of passengers and then triggered an emergency chute to exit the plane. According to his lawyer, Slater was not fired but resigned last week.

Slater was suspended following the incident that occurred last month, pending a JetBlue investigation. JetBlue issued an internal employee memo pointing out that largely favorable (to Slater) press coverage did not take into account how much harm can be caused by emergency slides, which are deployed with a potentially deadly amount of force.

Slater had worked for JetBlue for three years and had spent almost 20 years working in the airline industry.

He was a flight attendant on a flight from Pittsburgh to JFK airport on August 9th when, according to Slater, an argument broke out with a rude passenger. After landing at JFK Slater went on the public address system on the plane and cursed this passenger, claiming that she had repeatedly cursed him. Slater grabbed a beer on his way off the plane and left via an emergency chute.

Slater was arrested and charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing. His next court date is Tuesday.

After being arrested Slater was quoted saying that he loved flying and wanted to return to work. Many of his tens of thousands of online “fans” at Facebook urged JetBlue to keep him on. It is not known whether he will look for employment with another airline.
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