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JetBlue memo questions flight attendant's assertions

A flight attendant's explanation that an uncooperative passenger caused him to lose his mind and slide down a plane's emergency chute may not hold water, JetBlue said in an internal memo.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A rogue JetBlue flight attendant's explanation that an uncooperative passenger caused him to lose his mind and slide down a parked plane's emergency chute may not hold water, the airline says in an internal memo.

And even if it's true, a bad day at work is no excuse for flight attendant Steven Slater's behavior, JetBlue says.

Slater went onto the public address system Monday on a plane at New York's Kennedy Airport after a JetBlue flight from Pittsburgh, cursed out a passenger he said had treated him rudely, and then slid off the plane.

He was arrested, charged with criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing, and released on bail. Slater's attorney says a passenger's "lack of civility" prompted his behavior.

Slater has been hailed as a working-class hero on social networking sites for the ultimate take-this-job-and-shove-it moment.

JetBlue Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster says in the memo that the airline is still investigating, but that no one has yet corroborated Slater's version of events. In fact, JetBlue notes, several passengers "have given interviews that tell a different story."

"If Mr. Slater's story proves to be accurate, and even if there was a precipitating event that motivated his behavior, that still doesn't excuse his actions," Maruster wrote.

The airline said "the most distressing aspect" of news coverage is that the danger of deploying an emergency slide hasn't been taken seriously enough.

"Slides deploy extremely quickly, with enough force to kill a person," the letter to employees read. "Slides can be as dangerous as a gun."

Slater's lawyer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. He has said previously that Slater followed proper safety procedures for launching the slide, and had checked to make sure nobody was in its path as it deployed.

The attorney, Howard Turman, has previously stopped short of saying his client's actions were justified. At a news conference Thursday, he said instead that Slater was upset because he suffered a gash on the head while trying to help a passenger with a bag and was further angered by a passenger who insulted him at the end of the flight.

Maruster also sought to assure employees that if Slater's lawyer's account of the flight attendant's injury was true, JetBlue would take action.

"Let me just say this: JetBlue will always seek to prosecute people who physically harm or threaten to harm a crewmember or customer. Period."

On Thursday, Slater, 38, said through his lawyer that he loves flying and wants to go back to work.

"His hope is to return to the aviation business," Turman told reporters as Slater stood by his side outside his home in Queens. Flying, he added, "is in his blood."

Asked about Slater's desire to return to work, JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said: "As of right now, he has been released of duty pending the investigation. There's nothing more I can say."

Slater would not talk about his actions Thursday. He smiled silently for most of the 10-minute news conference, then offered a brief thanks to the public, saying, "It's been amazing, the support and love ... everything that's been brought to me."

Turman denied Slater was belligerent and said the entire affair can be blamed on a "lack of civility on the part of one passenger."

Others said that until Slater's intercom rant, his interactions with passengers appeared curt, but not unusually so in a time when flight attendants are often asked to play hall monitor.

Howard Deneroff, a radio executive for Westwood One, overheard Slater telling a passenger at the start of the flight that her bag wouldn't fit in the overhead bin and would need to be checked, but nothing about the conversation struck him as out of the ordinary.

"I didn't hear any cursing," he said. He said he also didn't hear Slater get injured.

Later, after the plane landed, he and other travelers heard Slater and other crew members repeatedly instruct a passenger to remain seated until the jet reached the gate. The traveler apparently didn't listen. Slater ultimately had to leave his seat to get the person to sit down.

"I happened to notice he had a big Cheshire cat grin when he gestured," said passenger Stuart Marland, but he said the interaction seemed routine.

"He did look a little like Corky St. Clair, just a little more animated than normal. But he didn't look 'crazed' at all," said Marland, referring to the quirky, flamboyant character played by Christopher Guest in the 1996 movie comedy "Waiting for Guffman."

By some accounts, it wasn't until the very end of the flight that things went haywire.

Marjorie Briskin, 53, told The Wall Street Journal that Slater launched an expletive at a female passenger without provocation after she inquired about the whereabouts of her bag, which had been checked at the gate when it couldn't fit in a storage bin.

"It really blew my mind. It was so inappropriate," Briskin said. She described Slater as "disturbed."

Deneroff said Slater announced over the intercom that a passenger had just cursed at him, then he cursed back at the passenger, thanked the rest of those aboard for being civil, and said he was through with the job.

"The people next to us were like, 'Welcome to New York,'" Deneroff said.

Some authorities said that Slater had grabbed at least one beer from the jet's galley before jumping out. Turman denied that his client had been drinking during the flight.

Slater faces charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing.

His boyfriend, Kenneth Rochelle, told reporters outside his home Thursday that Slater is a "lovely, classy, beautiful person," who was ordinarily very patient with passengers, and loved his job.

And his lawyer said: "Everybody who knows him knows that he's a likable man" and "for the most part, somebody that likes people."

He said his client had performed his job "efficiently, effectively and properly" over a 20-year career. Turman also said Slater liked JetBlue and regarded it as "a fair and understanding airline."

David Caruso, Verena Dobnik and Jennifer Yates contributed to this report.