War of Words between Jet Blue flight attendant and passengers

[marmar]

By DEEPTI HAJELA
The Associated Press


PITTSBURGH — A pair of Pittsburgh women aboard a JetBlue flight said that flight attendant Steven Slater — hailed by some as folk hero — was rude to passengers and instigated the incident that resulted in his barreling down an emergency chute from the plane and, ultimately, his arrest.

Marjorie Briskin, 53, told The Wall Street Journal that Slater blurted out an expletive during an otherwise normal conversation with a passenger over luggage.

Another woman, 25-year-old Lauren Dominijanni (doh-min-ih-YAW'-nee) told the Journal that Slater was immediately rude to her. She said Slater "rolled his eyes at me" when she asked for a wipe to clean up coffee someone spilled on her seat.

Neither woman immediately returned calls from The Associated Press on Thursday.

The paper quoted Briskin as saying that Slater's conversation with the as yet unidentified passenger was normal but turned nasty after Slater said the expletive.

"I didn't think she was rude in the least," Briskin said, according to the paper. "It really blew my mind. It was so inappropriate." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ajc.com/business/pa-passengers-call-jetblue-590070.html

[Sanity Claws]

1. But wasn't he hit in the head with falling luggage?

Weren't they out of their seats while the plane was still moving?

The first version of the story heavily relied on those two facts.

[joeybee12]

2. "rolled his eyes"/

Did he say something when he did it, like how rude it was of the rpevious passenger not to clean it?

WSJ...nuff said.

[mike r]

3. Passenger: Attendant Started Fray (WSJ):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704216804575423932483801118.html

[hedgehog]

7. So the Wall Street Journal found witnesses to tell us what a terrible flight

attendant Mr Slater was, despite the fact that

"Like the other two passengers, Ms. Liebhaber said she didn't witness the outburst that has been attributed to Mr. Slater in press reports:"


The real money quote:

"There are people out there who are dying for a job. I'm glad he's gone because someone can step in and do a much better job."

[napi21]

4. I will reserve judgement until I hear both sides of this story.

I've flown several times a week in the past & I've seen MANY instances where passengers treated flight attendants horribly, and spoke to them in language much mre than rude. I know the FA's are taught that no matter what, unless a passenger touches you, you ALWAYS treat them with respect because THAT'S YOUR JOB! They are human and given the right series o circumstances, I can sure see what that attendant did happening.

[closeupready]

5. Oh, please. That passenger reportedly threw her bag at him and gashed his head.

And STILL he went to work. How many of YOU would do that?

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I've done customer service under the rough circumstances and I can

attest that there are time when customers set you up, you wrongly engage with them, it blows up, and your supervisor gets a phonecall with the suggestion that you get fired.

Both parties have their share of the blame, but in the scheme of "She started it . . . ," you have to anticipate being set up and not taking the bait as you represent the company, not yourself.

The gash on the head was over-the-top. He should gotten her name and filed criminal or civil charges against her if he felt that would resolve the matter.

[dkf]

8. Well the guy is HIV positive so the lady who wanted him to clean up

her coffee before he cleans up his blood is an idiot.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

9. On the Today Show this AM, one of these women was interviewed and she was a ditz.

She said that Slater had a fresh gash on his head was rude to her because he said he had to take care of himself. She was annoyed by that. Her seat being clean was more important than taking care of a medical need.

She was probably just another reason for him saying fuck it.

[malaise]

10. Of course passengers are never wrong

Except that the woman who abused him was standing when she was supposed to be sitting.

True story several decades ago.
A young lady was on her very first flight as an airline stewardess. It was a short flight and coffee was never served during hurricane season for obvious reasons. A twenty something aged man asked for a cup of coffee and the poor new girl simply told him the rules. He abused her and told her about his taxes financing the airline, blah, blah, blah so she made the cup of coffee and while handing him it spilled all over him. When he cursed her out she told him to kidd her hairy ass - well that was also her last flight.

Of course others way more senior told her that the correct approach would have be to bathe him in the coffee anyway but then apologize profusely and then run for towels and another crew member to assist him. :evilgrin:

Stewardesses put up with a lot of shite but they do get even.