Everyone who has ever shouted “screw this” as they walked off the job should be so lucky as ex-Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater, who got a chance to describe what happened the day he shouted obscenities into the plane’s PA system then slid down the aircraft’s emergency chute to instant celebrity.
Calling the incident a perfect storm of bad manners, including his own, he told CNN’s “Larry King Live” he was stressed after a long shift; the likelihood was that the ill-mannered passenger was frustrated from the stress of traveling; and it all led him to take the intercom and shout his angst out loud.
A week ago, Slater reached a deal with prosecutors and pled guilty to second degree criminal mischief, and must enter a mental health program for a year and pay a $10,000 fine to Jet Blue to repair the emergency chute.
But things seem to be working out in his favor anyway, because besides being the hero of everyone who has ever spent a day at work ready to burst at the seams, and only getting slapped with a misdemeanor, and a year of free therapy, he’s also signed a deal to pen a book about the travails of travel working tentatively titled “Cabin Pressure.”