Well, at least he got to say good-bye in the most memorable way possible: Steven Slater, the JetBlue attendant who emergency chute-shot his way to infamy when he exited a flight at JFK Airport via the emergency slide after an alleged confrontation with an obnoxious passenger, is no longer working for the Queens-based airline. Spokeswoman Jenny Darvin confirmed as much but added, "I cannot confirm whether he resigned or whether he was fired. It's considered a private matter."
The initial story was that Slater left the plane in a huff—with two beers—after a passenger hit him on the head. But some other passengers said that the supposedly malicious passenger wasn't being that terrible and actually Slater was acting weirdly (an internal JetBlue memo says he lied). The Queens DA's office charged him with a felony for endangering the lives of people on the ground at JFK by deploying the emergency chute.
Still, Slater has many fans. One who started the Steven Later Legal Defense Fund told ABC News, "I'm a pilot myself and I was working with my crew when we heard about this. We just feel bad. It's just the way that we're treated. We all feel for him." And sorta upside: His escapade exposed flaws in JFK Airport security ("Slater managed to run through what are supposed to be secure zones near planes, dragging two carry-on bags, before taking an AirTrain to his car and driving home").
