Posted on 08/13/2010 12:54:42 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
An internal memo from JetBlue’s chief operating officer to the airline’s staff and board of directors explicitly rebukes the actions taken by flight attendant Steven Slater as “unacceptable.”
The document, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, offers the first timeline of events following Monday’s now-famous airplane exit by Slater, in which the apparently enraged flight attendant uttered expletives over the public address system, deployed the emergency chute and slid down to the tarmac with two beers in hand.
But the memo also reveals that even at the highest levels of JetBlue, officials are still trying to determine what exactly happened before Slater deployed the chute.
In the memo, JetBlue COO Rob Maruster concedes that Slater’s story about what led to his unusual departure has not been corroborated.
...According to the memo, JetBlue is cooperating with a Port Authority police probe and is conducting their own investigation to find the alleged passenger who sparked Slater’s outburst. Still, Maruster wrote, even if company officials find “there was a precipitating event that motivated his behavior, that still doesn’t excuse his actions.”
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
Chute-Riding Exit
Snicker
How in the world does this gaywad still have a job? Even if what he said happened with the passengers was true it is no excuse to curse out customers over the loudspeaker and deploy an escape chute in the absence of an emergency. If a passenger did that they would be immediately arrested, fined and probably banned from flying. By any measure he has proven himself mentally unfit for the job, and should have been fired immediately. I cant see how being gay helps makes it more difficult to get rid of him under the circumstances.
Yeah, but who rebuked him for the boyfriend-riding exit?
He says he wants his job back. He should never be allowed anywhere near a plane.
He's all over TV...I'm tired of looking at him! I don't understand all the attention he has gotten; he isn't a VIP and what he did isn't going to change the course of history.
Don't we live in a weird world!
There’s something very “Dog Day Afternoon” about this whole thing.
I know. I just wanted to be self-righteous. LOL!!!
I'm avoiding TV news as much as possible.
Don't we live in a weird world!
Don't get me started: *BIG SIGH*
Well, I would hope they did rebuke him. What he did was exercise a serious lack of maturity, self-discipline and judgment. More than that, it should be a crime and he should go to jail.
What’s been lost in all the discussion on this manchild is the true purpose of flight “attendants.” They are not there to hand out peanuts, although that is how they occupy their and passengers’ time. They are actually there as part of the flight “crew.” They are supposed to be highly trained at handling all kinds of emergencies and to be part of the crew that helps the Captain keep everybody alive.
HELLO.
Is that the first thing you think of when you get on board and have some of these divas tossing cold coffee at you?
I was on a flight once — national commercial airline — in a South American country that will remain unnamed. When we got over the airport, I noticed that the pilot made a sort of approach, pulled out and circled around again. I did not speak the language and, besides, no announcements were being made.
The pilot made another approach, also pulled out and circled around. I looked down and saw a creaky firetruck trundling out to the tarmac and a few airport officials squinting up into the sky as if they were trying to see what was wrong with our plane.
They were looking — not even with binoculars — at our landing gear and making hand motions.
At that point, the co-pilot came out of the cockpit, pulled back a piece of carpet on the aisle and began manually trying to crank down the landing gear. I kid you not.
The pilot finally made an announcement as all this was going on. Apparently, in Spanish he told the flight to prepare for a possible crash landing.
I was a little concerned because I had little way of knowing what was going on. I looked back in the plane and, whatdyaknow, all the flight attendants were huddled in the back, hugging and crying huge tears, wailing that we were all going to die. They had no idea of what they were supposed to be doing at that point, or else they had no discipline or judgment to execute their training in time of a true emergency. The passengers were completely on their own.
Finally the man next to me became indignant. He pulled out the emergency landing card in the seatfront pocket. He stood up and got everyone’s attention (probably a 100 or so people on board) and he began to explain calmly, in Spanish and English, what the passengers should do.
There were several babies on board and the card said the babies should be put in the mother’s lap and she should lean forward into the crash position with her baby in her lap. That’s when I really started getting a lump in my throat, because those mothers were really scared. I’ll never forget the sight of those mothers sort of wrapping their bodies around their babies to protect them. This man, a stranger to all of us, was assuring them. And he actually got us all into the crash position and so on. The flight “crew” was still in hysterical wailing and melted mascara in the back of the plane!
We made another pass then the pilot said he was going to try to land. He said the landing gear was down as far as they could tell, but it wasn’t clear it was locked.
The man beside me kept translating and showing real leadership. Then he got into position and we waited. I could hear people softly crying and praying.
We did have a hard landing, but we did not explode and all the babies were safe.
Those damn “flight crew” ninnies were still crying and wailing as we deboarded ourselves.
Anyway, long story. Thanks for your patience. I just wanted to say when you think these dorks on your flight are just annoyances, think again. Would you really want some clown like Slater trying to keep his cool and figure out how to handle a real emergency?
Absolutely. He seems to have never heard of, or cared about, 9/11. This happened in NEW YORK, for heaven’s sake!!
Well...you made me feel guilty! LOL!
Amen.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if deploying the chute is also costly and a matter of major maintenance. It may even take the plane out of service for a while.
Just like when the airbags in your car deploy — you don’t just cram them back in the dashboard and go on your merry way.
FWIW, I have tried to bring this forward. See my posts on the subject, and a few others here recognize the breach of responsibility but are mostly drowned out by the WAY TO GO, customers-are-all-crap crowd and the gay-bashing snickerers.
You mean, aside from the fact that he was arrested in bed with a man?
Yes, thank you and keep it up!
That is quite a story and one you will certainly never forget. It is one thing to be in an emergency and another to realize those you should be able to look to for safety or at least guidance have abandoned their duties.
Thank God a leader was amongst you. This story and others coming to my attention lately demonstrate we all need to be prepared to take care of ourselves and our own.
Local TV news reported last night on an incoming commercial flight from Maui that sat on the tarmac for hours without any explanation to the passengers. During this time, the crew “clocked out” and left the airplane. Can you believe this. The major airline admits they are short-handed these days. I’m sorry I can’t find the story right now.
Good thing he wasn’t a White woman saying “eeny meeny miney mo” - that would have got him fired.
You are correct. I don’t care who he is or what he is he should never be allowed back on his job. He is a danger to others and God knows what he might do next time. He needs to go find another career. I wouldn’t fly this airline if he was hired back. no way.
And I was thinking more about our conversation. The fundamental problem here is that we are discouraging and discrediting serious people in favor of whooping it up over the nincompoops and non-serious people.
Of course, you can do both — you can encourage serious people and whoop it up over the nincompoops. But our society is not doing that.
No one seems to even know how to approach a situation as a serious person. It’s all hahaha, mocking and adolescent pranksterism.
Sickening about the Maui flight. I know people with certain medical conditions — they can’t be on a flight for untold hours. I myself have a family member that travels with medicine that must be kept cold. So we keep it in a little cooler we carry on. Sometimes airport security will limit us to one ice pack — they throw the rest away. We protest, what if we get delayed? What if we are on the tarmac for several extra hours — we lose a $2,500 dose of medicine because YOU think one ice pack is “enough”?
One lady told us “you can always ask the flight attendants for extra ice.” Yes, if the delay happens onboard. And if the attendants haven’t clocked out and left the passengers there to wait it out.
Great Story.
That ‘stranger’ who stood up and took control of the situation was probably an angel.
This wasn’t Southwest either... Just sayin’....
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