Not sure if you saw this story but if you did not, please read on.
From the Toronto Star:
NEW YORK—It has been a long time since flight attendant was a glamorous job title. The hours are long. Passengers with feelings of entitlement bump up against new no-frills policies. Babies scream. Security precautions grate but must be enforced. Airlines demand lightning-quick turnarounds, so attendants herd passengers and pry gum out of seat cushions with the grim speed of an Indy pit crew. Everyone, it seems, is in a bad mood.
On Monday, a JetBlue attendant named Steven Slater snapped on the tarmac of Kennedy International Airport, authorities said.
After a dispute with a passenger who stood to fetch his luggage too soon on a full flight just in from Pittsburgh, Slater, a career flight attendant, had had enough.
He got on the intercom, let loose a string of invective, pulled the lever that activates the emergency-evacuation chute and slid down, making a dramatic exit not only from the plane but, one imagines, also his airline career.
On his way out the door, he paused to grab a beer from the beverage
cart. Then he ran to the employee parking lot and drove off, the
authorities said.
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.
“When they hit that emergency chute, it drops down quickly within seconds,” a law enforcement official said. “If someone was on the ground and it came down without warning, someone could be injured or killed.”
Passenger Phil Catelinet said he heard the profanity-laced announcement on Flight 1052 from Pittsburgh, which he described as "the most interesting part of the day to that point," but didn't see Slater use the exit slide or grab the beer.It wasn't until he saw Slater on an airport train and overheard him talking about the escapade that he put it all together.
"He was smiling. He was happy he'd done this," Catelinet told NBC's Today.
Read the rest here.
Now that's a swashbuckling exit.
The highlight of this piece, in case it slipped past you, was the understatement of Mr. Catelinet. "Most interesting part of the day to that point"?!
I'm guessing Mr. Catelinet was returning to his home. Only a true New Yorker could be be so blasé after watching a flight attendant surf down an emergency chute with a beer.
Hahaha! Dang, I love this :)
Posted by: Erin Wilson | August 10, 2010 at 06:22 PM