MINNEAPOLIS: It was a Monday moment. JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater quit his job in spectacular fashion today. The scene was New York's JFK airport. As a flight from Pittsburgh was taxiing up the tarmac at the end of the flight, a passenger impatiently attempted to remove her bag from the overhead compartment before the "All Clear" was announced. When Slater attempted to stop her, she hit him on the head with the bag. When he asked for an apology, she cursed him. It was reported that this was the continuation of disagreement between the two in Pittsburgh before the flight began. Demonstrably furious, Slater got on the intercom, told off the passenger with some obscenities and announced he was quitting, grabbed his carry-on and a few beers, then exited the plane via the emergency slide.
Slater was arrested sometime later by Port Authority detectives and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, and trespassing. As of this reporting it was technically unclear whether he had been relieved of his job, or put on leave. JetBlue announced that it was cooperating with the FAA and The Port Authority on the investigation. Additionally, JetBlue has been criticized for failing to file the complaint against Slater for almost half an hour after the incident. By then, Slater had bee-lined to his vehicle parked in the employee parking lot and alighted for home in the Belle Harbour section of Queens just 15 minutes or so away from JFK. It was reported that he was arrested there, supposedly in mid-coitus with his boyfriend, which may further explain his haste in departing. He was released later on $2500 bail after retaining Attorney Howard Turman.
As if this tale weren't silly enough in its own right, the Slater story went viral. Hailed as a "Howard Beal" style anti-hero from the film "Network", he has subsequently been applauded for expressing a strongly held sentiment in this free-enterprise Nirvana we live in, namely – "Take this job and shove it!"
As is the case in all celebrity abstractions, Slater is an unlikely hero, a sort of "Joe The Plumber" in reverse. Dropping flies into the ointment of belief that he was a calm, trod-upon drone until he burst was the report by other passengers that he was rude and agitated through the entire flight. That his behavior was patently unprofessional under whatever terms (what would have happened if there was a real crisis?) seems to have been missed in most of the hub-bub over the celebration of his moment of rebellion. Obviously, air transportation has been reduced to such routine that having a bad Monday is crisis enough.
