Buh-bye

"Buh-bye. Buh-bye. Thanks for flying with us. Buh-bye." Ah, the sweet song of insincerity. A song I've heard many a time and it's been taken to new heights, no pun intended, by one irritated flight attendant.

While at NBTA last week, the news broke of the the hasty exit of one Steven Slater, a JetBlue flight attendant, from his airplane upon arrival at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The story of the flight attendant who'd had enough with nasty passengers went viral in about three seconds flat. There was a lot of buzz about it on the conference show floor as well. The JetBlue folks that were there took it all in stride.

It's had me shaking my head. Given the amount of time I spend in the air, I've gotten to know a lot of flight attendants and have seen the garbage that they put up with. And by garbage, I'm not referring to the trash they sometimes have to scrape out of the seat pocket. No the garbage I refer to may be the drunk in 14E, or the irate tool in 5C, upset that he's not getting a meal on a flight at 10PM, or the proof why cousins shouldn't marry mother demanding to know where are the cupholders for her two obese sons. Those last two I've witnessed myself in just the last couple of months. I know pretty much every flight attendant, at least those flying for U.S. carriers, have dreamed of pulling a Slater by telling off that most obnoxious passenger, blowing the slide, and scooting off into the sunset. Slater's become a folk hero. Good for him. But now, in a world where CCTV is becoming omnipresent, I'm shaking my head more. Here's the video of his now infamous exit:

So here's where it gets weird. News reports made it seem like Mr. Slater hightailed it off that airplane in no time. But the video seems to tell another story. You've got a jetway fully attached to an airplane, a catering truck already elevated and ready to start pulling the galley out of R2 (door at the rear of the aircraft), and you've got ramprats already doing their thing. So this plane was buttoned up tight at the gate. Then you see L1 (door at the front of the aircraft) open, the slide deploy, and then nothing. Wait for it, wait for it. There he goes. Perhaps the delay was the time he needed to bust open his locked bar cart and grab the brewskis. I kind of don't think he took the time to complete the liquor report.

Anyway, this video for me sheds some light. It casts a doubt or two on the story Slater is serving. It would be nice to hear from the angry lady who ignited this whole thing too. Her side would be interesting. This is going to make for one heck of a cheesy movie. You know that's going to happen.

The bottom line is that we need a little bit more civility back in air travel. Do we need to go back to the days of white gloves for ladies and suits for men while flying? No. But, people, it's not a Wal-Mart, it's a commercial airplane, please dress and behave accordingly. And flight attendants, not every passenger hates you. A lot of appreciate what you do. So, c'mon, let's just all try to work it out! Good flights to all.