[Earl]

I am surprised nobody here has brought up the story flooding all the news channels and talk shows.

Steven Slater who is the flight attendant who quit in a very high profile way.

If you haven't heard of it, simply google flight attendant flips out or look at most any news page headline.

Thoughts? I will share mine when I read some of yours.

[Erin524]

If he'd really been doing that job for 20+ years, I'm surprised he didnt go off on people earlier.

There's a lot of people who have serious entitlement issues. The story that I've been hearing is that the passenger stood up before they announced it was safe to do so. The flight attendant asked the passenger to sit down, passenger refused and either opened the overhead and pulled out their bag and it either fell on the attendant's head or the passenger intentionally hit him...along with using some colorful language to insult the flight attendant.

You can only take so much abuse from the public before you snap.

I wonder how long that guy had been fantasizing about jumping out of the plane with a beer using the emergency exit slide... If you're going to quit your flight attendant job, that's an impressive way to quit.

[legzzalot]

well, I would have probably punched the guy who just hit me in the head with his bag... so....

OK granted the slide cost about $25 grand to replace but it had to be funny!

[Dejibo]

He has become an internet sensation. He has so much support, its not even funny. Too many folks have had enough of being pushed around at work, or treated badly by customers and think he is their hero.

Rock on Steve!

[Earl]

Ok, so heres my take. I worked for an airline. employee's at airlines are treated like TRASH!!!! I spoke to 4 friends of mine who work for US Airways and United. they ALL say he is a HERO. He shouldn't be prosecuted or serve jail time. flight attendants are treated so poorly, it's no wonder he snapped.

Back in the day, people dressed up to fly. they treated the (then) stewardess's with respect. talk to any F.A. now and they will tell you how poorly they are treated. I worked in reservations and it's amazing how "entitled" people feel they should be and how "we" as airline employee's are beneath them.

I applaud him. As of now he isn't even fired, he was arrested, arraigned and released on $2,500 bail. there is a website raising money for his defense and he has over 116,000 fans on facebook, yesterday morning he had 400.

If people who serve us were treated better, this sort of thing would never happen.

He took care of his father with ALS while he was dying and is now in charge of his mother who is terminal with cancer. I sure hope they don't send the guy to jail, who would take care of her. On The Today Show this morning the show's expert legal analyst said he doubted he will do any jail time. Jet Blue will likely strike a deal. I also read that for years before this his employee file was filled with accomidations and praise.

[DM]

Amen.... I fly around 4 times a yr and can honestly say that I have witnessed rude behavior from passengers many times. I hate it when the plane is taxi'ing in and people start getting up to retrieve their ''oversize'' bags from the overhead bins. They usually bump their bags into the passenger sitting directly below or fumble around in the aisle, therefore, coming into contact w/other passengers.

Last time I flew, the attendant politely asked a man to turn his laptop off 3 times and the last time, he slammed it shut and swore at her. Uncalled for.... 2 sides to every issue, I guess.
Obviously, he snapped.

[Blessings2You]

How embarrassing that we'd consider this type of action heroic.

Go ahead and roll your eyes, but my heroes are the ones who control their reactions and remain professional. I'm not saying just sit there smiling and take abuse, by the way.

My Mom used to say to us, "Just because some other kid acts like a dope doesn't mean you have to also."

When I got to the point where I felt as though I might bite a customer, I took a day off. I know people don't always have that option, but really? We immortalize people who snap?

[SandyC]

It is unacceptable behavior and while I understand the frustration, as with any job, he put many people at risk with his behavior. No one needs a flight attendant going off during a flight. We look to them to keep order and calm. Would we feel the same way if I snapped and hit Jim or trashed my house because I had a meltdown? I don't think so.

I started to post about our flight and the attendant we had but decided it was a long story and you may not really want to hear it. If you do I'll post it here. Let's just say she had entitlement issues, treated Jim and I like we were beneath her (he was in a wheelchair), totaled his wheelchair and a slew of other things. Corporate agreed with us 100% and refunded not only our trip, but also our entire vacation cruise and had to pay the VA $16,000 for the totaled chair.

[Erin524]

Originally Posted by SandyC

It is unacceptable behavior and while I understand the frustration, as with any job, he put many people at risk with his behavior. No one needs a flight attendant going off during a flight. We look to them to keep order and calm.

I started to post about our flight and the attendant we had but decided it was a long story and you may not really want to hear it. If you do I'll post it here. Let's just say she had entitlement issues, treated Jim and I like we were beneath her (he was in a wheelchair), totaled his wheelchair and a slew of other things. Corporate agreed with us 100% and refunded not only our trip, but also our entire vacation cruise and had to pay the VA $16,000 for the totaled chair.

How did she total the chair??

[SandyC]

Originally Posted by Erin524

How did she total the chair??

She didn't, the airline loading employees did while loading it to the plane. We were told we had to carry the pieces with us and place them in overhead.