JetBlue Employee Who Quit & Gained Folk Hero Status is from Thousand Oaks

JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater has shown the world one heck of a way to quit. On Monday morning a dispute between him and a passenger was the last straw. Sitting on the tarmac in New York, the Queens resident cursed out a passenger on the loudspeaker, grabbed some beer and inflated plane’s emergency chute to slide down it and walk to his car and drive home. Talk about drama... in that sort of amazing way.

The whole ordeal, of course, has gotten him in trouble. Inflating that slide really could have hurt someone and, well, not anyone can just walk across a tarmac, especially with a beer in hand. But now his Thousand Oaks mother is speaking out.

“I also don’t think that people in the service industry should be abused by anybody, whether it be a passenger or family, anybody,” Diane Slater, a former flight attendant, told the Ventura County Star. “Nobody should be abusing anybody, and I can understand why he snapped. I would have snapped, too. In fact, I probably would’ve snapped more than he did."

Steven was arrested reckless endangerment and criminal mischief. Some believe the passenger should also be investigated. What led to him quitting was a passenger allegedly not following Slater's orders, which could be against federal law. Slater also says the passenger hit him over the head with luggage, but others say it accidentally fell from the bin above.