A rogue JetBlue flight attendant’s explanation that an uncooperative passenger caused him to melt down and slide down a parked plane’s emergency chute may not hold water, the airline says in an internal memo.
And even if it’s true, a bad day at work is no excuse for flight attendant Steven Slater’s behavior, JetBlue says in the memo obtained Friday by The Associated Press.
Slater went onto the public address system Monday on a plane at New York’s Kennedy Airport after a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh. He cursed out a passenger he said had treated him rudely, and then slid off the plane.
He was arrested, charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing, and released on bail. Slater’s attorney says a passenger’s “lack of civility” prompted his behavior.
JetBlue Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster says in the memo that the airline is still investigating, but that no one has yet corroborated Slater’s version of events. In fact, JetBlue notes, several passengers “have given interviews that tell a different story.”
“If Mr. Slater’s story proves to be accurate, and even if there was a precipitating event that motivated his behavior, that still doesn’t excuse his actions,” Maruster wrote.
Slater has been hailed as a working-class hero on social networking sites for the ultimate take-this-job-and-shove-it moment.
The airline said “the most distressing aspect” of news coverage is that the danger of deploying an emergency slide hasn’t been taken seriously enough.
“Slides deploy extremely quickly, with enough force to kill a person,” the letter to employees read. “Slides can be as dangerous as a gun.”
Maruster added that the “episode does not reflect the professional and sincere service you deliver to our customers every day.”
I wish the media would stop saying that the public thinks he’s a hero. There are people that view his actions as unprofessional, childish, melodramatic and intolerable. Everyone has complaints about their jobs. Over the top actions are far from what I call “heroic”.
Sounds like you never worked a day in the service industry. Personally, I’m sick of people claiming how outrageous Slaters conduct was. For some reason flight attendants are just supposed to sit back, smile, take on any ridiculous amount of rude behavior on the part of the travelers, and not do a damn thing about it. Well to hell with that, there is no reason passengers need to act this way – and I for one couldn’t be happier that someone finally did what we all want to do in such a situation. No excuse for being disrespectful to your fellow man. Every job has its issues and people put up with a lot, but there is something to say for self respect. Finally so many voices were heard!
So, Mack, it’s OK if that slide had hit and injured or killed a baggage handler??
Of course it was a low class worker he is guilty by default .If however that was some very high level person in the company ,he was going to be innocent ,still he would quit his job and get 12 million in severance pay for his saffuring.
it’s why everyone should be in the service industry at least for some time in their life: empathy. we still don’t know the whole story on the passenger yet either. regardless, it’s one thing to tell the passenger off, it is another situation all together if someone on the ground was crippled or killed. not a hero in my book. but a heck of a story anyway. should lose his job, get fined, serious community service work but no jail time.
@Mack – That’s where you’re incorrect. I worked service for 8 years (through and after college). I work customer service now for a Fortune 50 company. Throwing a sissy fit and making a grand diva exit is far from commendable. I never stated that being turse was wrong, but control your actions and leave the venting for the proper arena. On a positive note, there is now a job opening for a much better qualified service representative *ding*
Whatever happened to freedom of speech, you should be allowed to tell anyone off without getting in trouble, as long as you can handle the consequences. As for the emergency stairs, did anyone ask him if he looked out the window first.
He did nothing wrong. Cursing and telling someone off is not a crime.
For all of you who think it is, take a look at the mirror sometime.
Im not calling the man heroic, but we all need to look at the big picture.
Why was this news in the first place. Nothing happened.
“Whatever happened to freedom of speech, you should be allowed to tell anyone off without getting in trouble, as long as you can handle the consequences. As for the emergency stairs, did anyone ask him if he looked out the window first. He did nothing wrong. Cursing and telling someone off is not a crime. For all of you who think it is, take a look at the mirror sometime.”
You don’t have freedom of speech on the job, you blithering idiot. And he wasn’t arrested for name calling. He was arrested for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment for the slide and trespassing for being in a secure area without authorization.
As you obviously have never seen one of those slides go off, they could easily kill or maim a ramprat working on the ground. There is no good way to ensure the area is clear from on-board the plane.
Sorry, I think I am missing something. “Passengers accounts differ from Slaters” And where in the article are the passenger accounts? What happened before the slide was deployed….no one has come forward to speak with a reporter? Can not passenger find one reporter (vise versa) so we can get the dirt? There must not be any. whatevers.
@Piper – “You don’t have freedom of speech on the job, you blithering idiot.”
Where do you live? Tehran? We do in fact have freedom of speech – everywhere – in the United States. Even on the job. You can say whatever you want wherever you want. Might get you into trouble, but you still have the right to speak. Always.
And as another poster pointed out, how do you (or anyone else) know whether or not he checked for “ramprats” (man, that’s complimentary) standing around before he popped the slide? You don’t know.
Steverino…maybe you need to understand what “freedom” is-if it gets you in trouble, then it’s NOT freedom. Geez.
The media should end the glorification of this creepy individual. He endangered people and belongs in jail. Social networking is a joke. Call it like it is, this was a straight up hissy fit and shame on JetBlue for not weeding him out before he was able to act out. You would think commercial airlines would get their act together. The drama from some of their employees does not belong on the airplanes. When will they stop jepordizing their customers safety? When will the FAA get out of bed with the airlines?
I wish Mr. Slater luck in getting a new job. Unfortunately, this much publicity won’t help him with his job search.
good for him. he hated his job and putting up with ignorant people, which he did on a daily basis, and had enough. we all have been there, but dont have the strength to do what he did, yet we say he was irresponsible… i applaud him in bringing attention to ignorant customers, no matter the situation.
One thing that everyone has failed to mention is that not only did Mr. Slater’s action possibly endanger workers on the tarmac, but it caused a whole plane load full of people to be delayed by five hours, missing connecting flights. These are people that have to be places for work, family events, vacations and this idiot’s inability to control himself caused at least a lost day for the passengers. Is one man’s short temper and sense of entitlement more important than the hundred or so people that were on the plane?
Also should note that Mr. Slater had previously worked in the airline industry but had to leave his job due to drug and alcohol problems. He had received treatment, worked another job and finally came back to the industry. There are some underlying emotional problems there.
Should the passengers jump off the plane if they got bad service???
If your going to work in the service sector then you had best be able to suck up the occasional idiot customer. There is absolutly NO excuse for his actions. It would have been far more heroic for him to have just handled it in a mature way. Getting on the speaker to single out the passenger, setting off a dangerous slide,causing a massive delay to all the other passengers and acting like it was noble just shows how far he has to go as a human….sad.
To those who quote the First Amendment . . . here’s what it says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
CONGRESS shall not abridge the freedom of speech. Got it?
To those of you quoting feedom of speech from the 1st amendment. Take it from a constitutional lawyer. When it says “Congress shall make no law…”, it’s referring that one cannot be criminally prosecuted for exercising their freedom of speech. It does NOT mean that companies cannot take action against their employees for exercising their freedom of speech. If you work in customer service, drop f-bombs and other curses on your customer regardless of how he/she treated you, you will be fired because it is against your company’s policy. You will not be criminally prosecuted by any government statute, but you will lose your job. And this clown flight attendant was not arrested for cursing at passengers. He was arrested for felony public endangerment, a very, very serious charge. Let’s let the criminal justice system determine guilt, but he’s in a heap of trouble, IMO
No Freedom of speech issue here. You don’t for instance have the right to you FIRE in a crowded theater. Slater put himself, ramp workers, and possible other passengers in danger.
The reason there is probably no accounts from other passengers is because this is considered a personnel issue within the company. This information was not released by Jet Blue because of privacy issues.
The ironic thing now is that Slater wants his job back. He’s probably come to the conclusion that he may have a hard time finding another one.
Flight attendants are supposedly there for safety reasons. Ask yourself this if your plane was involved in a mishap would you want someone like Slater to help insure your safety.
The guy had a melt down. Deploying the slide was probably ill-advised but I would guess a lot of flight attendance have considered that action as a way to just get off the damned plane and away from all these crazy people.
Whatever else one can say, there isn’t enough done to convince passengers that they are in fact not allowed to abuse their flight attendants, even if it is unprofessional of them to respond like human beings.
Makes no difference what kind of idiots he has to deal with every day. That is his job, dealing with people. He did a poor job that day, there are many ways to deal with ignorant people, none of which involve losing your cool, exiting the aircraft with an emergency slide, or using profanity in public. All of these actions are unprofessional. The only thing he did right was to grab a beer, since that will be his last opportunity to have a beer as a Flight Attendant for Jet Blue.