JetBlue Jumper Steven Slater Gets One-Year Probation, $10K Fine
Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant known for his dramatic exit from a JetBlue airplane onto the tarmac last summer, left Queens Court on Wednesday with a one-year probation sentence and a $10,000 bill from the airline as viewers cheered him on.
Slater became an iconic figure last August after he announced over the airplane’s public address system that he was frustrated and leaving. He then grabbed a beer and deployed down the emergency slide.
Slater was required to attend a court-mandated treatment program and was granted a lesser sentence of probation after completing his rehabilitation.
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Damages resulting from Slater’s exorbitant departure totaled $25,000.
“That was one moment, that was not indicative of who I am,” Slater said Wednesday, noting that he planned to move New York to California.
“I feel like I’m in a much better place,” he said.
“I have control over my life.”
Many now hail Steven Slater as a symbolic representation of working-class woes.
Slater recently announced that he has already rejected five offers to star in a television reality series centered on his life. Instead, the former airline employee is now focusing on authoring a memoir on his 20-year involvement with the airline industry that will raise the issue of insufficiently paid flight attendants in a post-9/11 environment.
“I’m really enjoying the walk down memory lane,” Slater commented publicly.
“It was absolutely wonderful. I miss those days immensely. But I miss very much what it was, not what it is,” he said, noting his salary of $9,700 at JetBlue last year was far less than he was making 20 years ago.
Slater also commented on the support he has received since the highly publicized incident occurred last year.
“I’ve been a divisive character in the airline industry, but 95 percent of the crews are behind me,” he said.
“I was the one person who had a bad day and perhaps acted inappropriately, but I think it resonated with other people.”
Slater currently stays in California because his home in Queens was destroyed by Hurricane Irene.
