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Steven Slater, a Jet Blue flight attendant, grabbed instant fame this week when he was arrested after an expletive laden exit from a commercial flight full of passengers down the emergency chute. The chain of events began when Slater said he was hit in the head with luggage from a passenger's mishandling of an overhead compartment bag.

Jet Blue Attendant Arrested - Folk Hero or Foolhardy, Steven Slater's 15 Minutes.

They argued. He says the female passenger cursed him. Slater had a cut on his head from the bag that dropped out of the overhead bin.

It was at the end of the flight and at the end of what appears to be a very hard day on Slater. That jolt from the bag may have knocked something loose as he quit his job in dramatic fashion.


For some he is now a folk hero. Others claim he is foolhardy and dangerous.

Slater, 38, is right in the middle of his fifteen minutes of fame and it all began when he grabbed the microphone for the airplane's intercom and cursed out a female passenger before telling the plane full of passengers that he was quitting.

He pulled the pin and exited stage left, via an emergency slide.

He was clutching a beer. It was caught on surveillance tape by NBC News. The video shows Slater deploying the slide outside the airplane before sliding down and escaping to freedom.


See it here.

Some have challenged his version of events and claim there was no argument. The NY Daily News has more on that side of the story.

What's next for Slater? He wants to get back in the sky and work again, he says.

Will the airline allow it?