Gidget
Beach Fanatic
Personally, I'm tired of reading headlines that label Slater as a hero. Everyone is celebrating his actions and putting him in the same category as say a Captain Sully! It's one thing that he got fed up, lost it, had a scene and flew the coop - that's something that can happen (you know, the "Take this job and shove it" attitude 
) but to elevate him to hero and overnight celebrity status is something I don't get.
Here's "the rest of the story".
JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater's fuse was lit before plane left the gate
BY Christina Boyle, Alison Gendar, Erica Pearson AND Rich Shapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, August 12th 2010, 4:00 AM
Lombard for News
Fleeing flight attendant Steven Slater - who posted pics on Facebook from his time at jetBlue (below) - enjoys moment in spotlight as he drives with boyfriend in Manhattan Wednesday.
It started with a bloody cut and ended with a boozy bailout. In between, as Flight 1052 traveled from Pittsburgh to Kennedy Airport, jetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater suffered a slow, steady meltdown. Agitated, unkempt and bleeding from the head, Slater dramatically flung aside a life jacket and oxygen mask after giving a demonstration. He bumped into passengers without apologizing, and abruptly stopped handing out drinks and snacks, passengers said. "He was very disturbed. He was almost hysterical," said one passenger, who declined to give his name. "It was obvious that something was going on." Several passengers detailed Slater's bizarre behavior for the Daily News a day after he was sprung from a Bronx jail. He became an instant celebrity after he cursed over the intercom, grabbed some beer and slid down the emergency chute in a resignation for the ages.
While he's been hailed as a hero or a victim by some, passengers on the 46-minute flight said he acted like an unstable diva. One passenger even said Slater instigated the dustup over the luggage. Marjorie Briskin said she saw a woman in her 20s ask Slater where her bag was stowed after the flight landed at Kennedy Airport. "I didn't think she was rude in the least," Briskin, a schoolteacher from Pittsburgh, told The Wall Street Journal. Briskin said Slater became irate and cursed at the passenger, whom he is believed to have feuded with in Pittsburgh. "It really blew my mind," Briskin told The Journal. "It was so inappropriate." Radio executive Howard Deneroff was trying to nap when he heard an argument between Slater and a woman seated near Briskin - but nothing too heated. "I didn't see her, but I heard him saying to somebody, 'That's not going to fit. We're going to have to check it up front,'" he said. "And like everybody does, she was saying that there were important things in it." When Slater stood up a while later to give the safety instructions, he seemed unhinged. His shirt bottom was unbuttoned, revealing a paunch, as he held the oxygen mask and life jacket.
"He sort of threw them on the floor after demonstrating," said Gib Mendelson, a lawyer. The display prompted nervous laughter in the cabin. For Laura Dominijanni, the trip got off to an odd start when she noticed spilled coffee in her second-row seat and asked Slater for help. "He said, 'Not right now. Maybe when we're in the air, but I have to take care of myself, honey,'" Dominijanni recalled. "I could tell that there was something wrong with him." Slater already had a fresh, bloody gash on his forehead - which he later told cops came from an angry female passenger who smacked him in the head with the door of an overhead bin during a dispute over her carry-on bags.
After takeoff, Slater handed out drinks and snacks to about half the plane, then simply quit. "He got back to our row and just stopped," Mendelson said. "He was acting sort of petulantly, as if he decided to opt out." Deneroff, in the 20th row, said Slater kept jostling him. "Literally three times, he woke me up," he said. Stuart Marland, a Broadway actor sitting in the second row, said when the plane landed, Slater saw a passenger prematurely try to retrieve a carry-on. "He got up from his jump seat and started to come back to motion to someone to sit down and close their bin," said Marland. Marland, 51, and other passengers in the front had filed out of the plane when Slater commandeered the public-address system, dropped the F-word a few times, and pulled the lever on the escape chute. His lawyer claimed he was simply trying to escape the female passenger who hit him on the head with the bin door and who began haranguing him after the plane landed. Port Authority police - who hit Slater with three felonies - are trying to identify the passenger who stoked Slater's rage.
) but to elevate him to hero and overnight celebrity status is something I don't get.Here's "the rest of the story".
JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater's fuse was lit before plane left the gate
BY Christina Boyle, Alison Gendar, Erica Pearson AND Rich Shapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, August 12th 2010, 4:00 AM
Fleeing flight attendant Steven Slater - who posted pics on Facebook from his time at jetBlue (below) - enjoys moment in spotlight as he drives with boyfriend in Manhattan Wednesday.
It started with a bloody cut and ended with a boozy bailout. In between, as Flight 1052 traveled from Pittsburgh to Kennedy Airport, jetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater suffered a slow, steady meltdown. Agitated, unkempt and bleeding from the head, Slater dramatically flung aside a life jacket and oxygen mask after giving a demonstration. He bumped into passengers without apologizing, and abruptly stopped handing out drinks and snacks, passengers said. "He was very disturbed. He was almost hysterical," said one passenger, who declined to give his name. "It was obvious that something was going on." Several passengers detailed Slater's bizarre behavior for the Daily News a day after he was sprung from a Bronx jail. He became an instant celebrity after he cursed over the intercom, grabbed some beer and slid down the emergency chute in a resignation for the ages.
While he's been hailed as a hero or a victim by some, passengers on the 46-minute flight said he acted like an unstable diva. One passenger even said Slater instigated the dustup over the luggage. Marjorie Briskin said she saw a woman in her 20s ask Slater where her bag was stowed after the flight landed at Kennedy Airport. "I didn't think she was rude in the least," Briskin, a schoolteacher from Pittsburgh, told The Wall Street Journal. Briskin said Slater became irate and cursed at the passenger, whom he is believed to have feuded with in Pittsburgh. "It really blew my mind," Briskin told The Journal. "It was so inappropriate." Radio executive Howard Deneroff was trying to nap when he heard an argument between Slater and a woman seated near Briskin - but nothing too heated. "I didn't see her, but I heard him saying to somebody, 'That's not going to fit. We're going to have to check it up front,'" he said. "And like everybody does, she was saying that there were important things in it." When Slater stood up a while later to give the safety instructions, he seemed unhinged. His shirt bottom was unbuttoned, revealing a paunch, as he held the oxygen mask and life jacket.
"He sort of threw them on the floor after demonstrating," said Gib Mendelson, a lawyer. The display prompted nervous laughter in the cabin. For Laura Dominijanni, the trip got off to an odd start when she noticed spilled coffee in her second-row seat and asked Slater for help. "He said, 'Not right now. Maybe when we're in the air, but I have to take care of myself, honey,'" Dominijanni recalled. "I could tell that there was something wrong with him." Slater already had a fresh, bloody gash on his forehead - which he later told cops came from an angry female passenger who smacked him in the head with the door of an overhead bin during a dispute over her carry-on bags.
After takeoff, Slater handed out drinks and snacks to about half the plane, then simply quit. "He got back to our row and just stopped," Mendelson said. "He was acting sort of petulantly, as if he decided to opt out." Deneroff, in the 20th row, said Slater kept jostling him. "Literally three times, he woke me up," he said. Stuart Marland, a Broadway actor sitting in the second row, said when the plane landed, Slater saw a passenger prematurely try to retrieve a carry-on. "He got up from his jump seat and started to come back to motion to someone to sit down and close their bin," said Marland. Marland, 51, and other passengers in the front had filed out of the plane when Slater commandeered the public-address system, dropped the F-word a few times, and pulled the lever on the escape chute. His lawyer claimed he was simply trying to escape the female passenger who hit him on the head with the bin door and who began haranguing him after the plane landed. Port Authority police - who hit Slater with three felonies - are trying to identify the passenger who stoked Slater's rage.
