JetBlue Flight Attendant Wants Job Back
Steve Slater, the JetBlue sky waiter whose recent meltdown became a viral sensation, wants his old job back.
Steve Slater, the JetBlue sky waiter whose recent meltdown became a viral sensation, wants his old job back.
The flight attendant whose dramatic departure from a JetBlue plane at a New York City airport has transformed him into a folk hero to some wants his job back, his lawyer told reporters Thursday.
“That’s his life,” Steven Slater’s Legal Aid defense attorney Howard Turman told reporters outside his client’s home in Queens, near John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Slater’s exit via an emergency slide vaulted him to national attention. “His father was a pilot; his mother was a flight attendant. That’s in his blood. That’s what he likes to do.”
Whether Slater can regain his wings was unclear. “We’re conducting an internal investigation regarding his status as an employee at JetBlue,” said airline spokeswoman Jenny Dervin, who added that Slater has been removed from duty pending the outcome of that internal inquiry.
She described Slater’s behavior as unlike that of the New York-based airline’s other 2,300 flight attendants. “I would say this is highly unique,” she said.
But an internal memo sent Thursday by JetBlue Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster and obtained by CNN describes a company that appears unlikely to forgive. “Intentionally arming and deploying an evacuation slide for anything other than the express purpose of protecting the safety of our crew and customers is unacceptable,” it says. “It will not, and can not, be tolerated.”
You’d think. As Jim Treacher put it, “A job, once shoved, is exceedingly difficult to extricate.”
I am astounded that this Slater guy has become a folk hero of some sort. His leaving the plane by virtute of the safety slide because he’s tired of serving passengers and having to put up with their complaints proves he is no longer stable enough to work as a flight attendant. If something goes wrong on a plane, I want my flight attendant to be 100% stable and be able to react to the emergency to keep all the passengers safe–not throw a hissy fit because he’s had a bad day.
His leaving the plane by virtute (sic) of the safety slide because he’s tired of serving passengers and having to put up with their complaints proves he is no longer stable enough to work as a flight attendant.
While I think the gash on his head had something to do with, I basically agree with your post.
His whole routine was an elaborate way to quit his job. He didn’t get fired, he quit. Either way, you don’t get your old job back.