JetBlue attendant arrested after leaving plane by emergency chute
JetBlue attendant, upset after an altercation with a passenger, left the plane by deploying and sliding down the inflatable emergency chute on Monday. The flight attendant was later arrested at his New York home.
In this 2009 file photo, a JetBlue plane takes off from Miami International Airport. A flight attendant on a JetBlue flight to New York City Monday became upset after an altercation with a passenger. He left the plane by deploying and sliding down the inflatable emergency chute and was later arrested.
Wilfredo Lee/AP/File
New York
A JetBlue flight attendant upset after an altercation with a passenger bolted from the plane by deploying and sliding down the inflatable emergency chute on Monday, police said. The flight attendant, Steven Slater, was arrested at his home in the New York City borough of Queens after fleeing from John F. Kennedy International Airport, He will likely be charged with reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, a spokesman for the Port Authority police said.
IN PICTURES: The wide world of air travel
Slater, who had quarreled with a passenger fiddling with his luggage after landing but before the plane came to a complete stop, swore over the public address before opening a door, inflating the chute and sliding down, police said.The New York Daily News reported that he took over the intercom and called the passenger a 12-letter epithet beginning with m and then told everyone, "I've been in the business 28 years. I've had it. That's it."
The JetBlue Embraer 190 had just arrived at JFK from Pittsburgh.
Related: