Great story in yesterday's New York Times about an incident at JFK. Steven Slater, the mild-mannered and pleasant-looking guy you see here, is...or was...a fight attendant [formerly "steward", ed.] with JetBlue. Yesterday he made a spectacular CEM -- Career-Ending Move.
Agent 59 was, until retirement, a FA for a large international airline. She never tired of telling Walt how stupid and horrible many of the passengers were. "Pigs in space", she called them.
Now, with the ever-increasing frustrations of air travel -- endless security checks, smaller seats [bigger pax? ed.], no food -- passengers are getting more surly day by day. And who do they take it out on? The FAs!
Yesterday Steven Slater couldn't take it any more. Before the plane had reached the gate, a passesnger stood up to get his luggage out of the overhead bin. Slater told him to sit down. The passenger defied the FA and pulled his bag out of the bin, striking Slater on the head.
Slater asked for an apology and the passenger cursed him. You could call it an "air rage" incident, except that the plane was on the ground. Something inside Slater snapped! He got on the intercom, let loose a "string of invective" -- the Times doesn't give us a transcript -- then pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute.
Stopping only to grab a beer from the service cart, Slater slid down the chute, the exiting not only the plane, but, Walt supposes, his career.
He was arrested at his home in Queens, a few miles from the airport, and charged with felony counts of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. "The authorities" just don't have any sense of humour these days.
The Times doesn't report the reaction of the other passengers, but I, for one, would have applauded. In today's world, it seems, there is no courtesy or consideration for others, only "me first". Steven Slater, at least, won't have to deal with that for a while.
Agent 59 was, until retirement, a FA for a large international airline. She never tired of telling Walt how stupid and horrible many of the passengers were. "Pigs in space", she called them.
Now, with the ever-increasing frustrations of air travel -- endless security checks, smaller seats [bigger pax? ed.], no food -- passengers are getting more surly day by day. And who do they take it out on? The FAs!
Yesterday Steven Slater couldn't take it any more. Before the plane had reached the gate, a passesnger stood up to get his luggage out of the overhead bin. Slater told him to sit down. The passenger defied the FA and pulled his bag out of the bin, striking Slater on the head.
Slater asked for an apology and the passenger cursed him. You could call it an "air rage" incident, except that the plane was on the ground. Something inside Slater snapped! He got on the intercom, let loose a "string of invective" -- the Times doesn't give us a transcript -- then pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute.
Stopping only to grab a beer from the service cart, Slater slid down the chute, the exiting not only the plane, but, Walt supposes, his career.
He was arrested at his home in Queens, a few miles from the airport, and charged with felony counts of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. "The authorities" just don't have any sense of humour these days.
The Times doesn't report the reaction of the other passengers, but I, for one, would have applauded. In today's world, it seems, there is no courtesy or consideration for others, only "me first". Steven Slater, at least, won't have to deal with that for a while.
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