FLIGHTS OF FANCY
(with excerpts from the New York Times)
It has certainly been a long time since a “Flight Attendant” was a glamorous job title. When people dressed up to travel and when the journey was as important as the destination.
With cheap airfares and budget airlines, everybody seems to be flying.
The hours are long, the passengers are crass (this is the most polite word I could find), children are let loose everywhere and then there is the security.
Take off shoes; Take off belt; Take off ugly clothes (ok I made up the last one but dont you wish it were so).
It must certainly make some of the crew just put up their hands and go:-
“TO HELL WITH IT”
And on Monday, at Kennedy International Airport, a JetBlue attendant named Steven Slater did just that.
When the plane had just landed and was still taxing, a passenger stood to fetch his luggage.
Now how many times have we all seen this? And every time I always end up asking myself 'Where are those dudes off to? What can be the hurry?'.
As the American newspaper report goes:-
“So the passenger got out of his seat to retrieve his belongings from the overhead compartment before the crew had given permission. Mr. Slater instructed the man to remain seated. The passenger defied him. Mr. Slater reached the passenger just as he pulled down his luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head. Mr. Slater asked for an apology. The passenger cursed at him instead.”
And what Mr. Slater did next is what all of us at various times have also dreamed of doing.
He calmly stepped back, went over to the plane’s galley, got onto the plane's PA system and cursed the bloody hell out of the passenger for all to hear.
“I’ve had 20 years in the airline industry,” he screamed at the end, "and it's ENOUGH!"
Not sure if this public outburst was enough he then pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute and slid down, making a fantastically dramatic exit not only from the plane but, I imagine, also from his airline career.
Oh and by the way, on his way out of the door, he paused and grabbed a can of beer from the beverage cart.
After sliding down the chute he then ran to the employee parking lot and drove off home where the cops were waiting for him.
He was arrested at his home and charged with felony counts of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
According to his online profiles, Mr. Slater has been the leader of JetBlue's uniform redesign committee and a member of the airline's in-flight values committee.
Neighbors in California, where Mr. Slater grew up, said he had recently been caring for his dying mother, a retired flight attendant, and had done the same for his father, a pilot.
Postscript: A neighbour reported later that “Mr. Slater had a big wide smile on his face when the cops brought him out, like, 'Yeah, big deal.' "
And meanwhile a former flight attendant, Janet Bavasso, who lives next door to Mr. Slater in New York, found nothing mysterious at all.
"Enough is enough -- good for him," Ms. Bavasso said. "If he would have called me, I would have picked him up from the airport myself."
Next time you reach for the overhead baggage, think about the crew and if you really want to risk the move…
Do you? Do You? DO YOU?
GO AHEAD PUNK…. MAKE HIS DAY.
