Court sends air steward who jumped plane for drugs treatment

The flight attendant whose spectacular resignation by emergency chute landed him in court pleaded guilty to attempted criminal mischief today. He was ordered to undertake at least a year of counselling and drugs treatment.

"At the end of the day, I'm a grown-up and I must take responsibility for my actions," said Steven Slater, who became an online cult hero briefly. He said the public interest in his case had surprised him.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted criminal mischief, a felony, before mental health court Judge Patricia Hirsch. He also pleaded guilty to fourth-degree attempted criminal mischief, a misdemeanor.

The judge told him that if he does not complete his drugs treatment to her satisfaction, he will be jailed for one to three years.

Slater's escape occurred on 9 August aboard a JetBlue Airways Corp flight from Pittsburgh that had just landed at John F Kennedy International Airport. Slater got on the loudspeaker, cursed at passengers, then slid down the plane's emergency chute with a beer. He was featured on TV shows, on the front pages of newspapers and hundreds of thousands of fans online cheered him for standing up to the inhospitable world of airline travel and quitting his job so spectacularly.

Slater remains unemployed after resigning from JetBlue. He worked there for about three years, although he had spent nearly 20 in the airline industry.

JetBlue suspended Slater and told employees in a memo that press coverage was not taking into account how much harm can be caused by emergency slides, which are deployed with a potentially deadly amount of force.

District Attorney Richard Brown scolded Slater – and the public – for not taking his actions more seriously, noting it cost $25,000 to fix the slide and that the plane had to be taken out of service, causing flight delays.

(Published by Guardian - October 19, 2010)

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10/19/2010 - JetBlue attendant in famous meltdown due in court - Click here.