FlyerTalk With Steven Slater: “Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated”
Earlier this month, FlyerTalk published a Throwback Thursday post titled The Most Epic Rage Quit in Airline History (and Its Dark Ending) about Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who became a folk hero when he quit his job as a flight attendant via the plane’s emergency exit slide. But, as it turns out, Steven Slater’s story wasn’t dark at all. While TMZ reported that Slater went missing in Mexico, Steven Slater popped into the comments section on FlyerTalk’s article to let everyone know that he’s alive and well. And, because the world’s most popular frequent flier community was eager for an update, he agreed to talk with us about life after JetBlue. Here’s what JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater had to say:
He Never Disappeared in Mexico
“I learned a very valuable lesson when a bag containing my passport, phone, and wallet was stolen in Mexico after [I crossed] the border one night. Like so many of us, I stored all of my contacts in my phone, not bothering to memorize or write down numbers. Suddenly, I found myself stranded with no way of contacting anyone for help and struggling to communicate in my limited language abilities. As a coworker at my job in San Diego was also a neighbor in Mexico, there was great concern when I didn’t show at either my job or back in my neighborhood the next day.”
So, worried about what could have happened Says Slater, “we all hear the sensationalized reports of excessive violence near the border,” his friend reported him missing. “Within hours, both mainstream media outlets as well as TMZ and the tabloid press picked up the story and ran with it. Because of the viral nature of news, I was back at my home in the Mexican countryside before the story lost traction.
“I was truly shocked by the extent of the coverage and it created a great deal of panic amongst friends and loved ones unable to reach me in Mexico without a phone or internet access. I was also very disheartened by the lowbrow nature of much of the coverage as I felt much of it was salacious and sensationalized, a lot of it merely a rehash of the events of nearly a decade ago.”
He Doesn’t Consider Himself a Celebrity
What has Steven Slater been up to since the day in 2010 that changed his life? He’s been living his life, and moving forward. But, despite his brush with fame, he doesn’t consider himself famous: “While I have definitely been labeled a “newsmaker,” I have never been comfortable with the title of “celebrity,” he told FlyerTalk. “I am someone who experienced a remarkable turn of events in the course of an otherwise routine day. And that turn of events just happened to play out the public eye and in the court of public opinion. Today, I live the dichotomy of being both a Wikipedia page and a private citizen enjoying a peaceful existence in relative anonymity, which I greatly prefer.”
Slater went on to say, “It was never my life’s ambition to blow up my life. Thankfully, I do see the humor in it and I was fortunate that a lot of people found something to celebrate in that moment even if it came with a dark shadow attached. I no longer doubt my inherent worth as an employee and as a human being and I will never be made to feel less- than in the workplace again.
“I, and I alone, own my story and I have found my voice. It would have been swell if all of that could have come to fruition in a little bit more timely fashion but life unfolded as it did and I won’t waste time on regret or ‘what if’s.’ As they say, there’s a reason why the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror.”
Why Passenger Behavior Is Getting Worse
We also had a few questions for Slater about his take on ill-advised in-flight behavior. Followers of Steven Slater’s story will remember that, shortly before his exit, Slater had an unhappy confrontation with a passenger. As FlyerTalk readers know, stories of passengers, flight attendants, and even pilots behaving in headline-grabbing ways frequently come across our desks.
Those stories, says Slater, are a direct byproduct of airlines who are always looking for the bottom line: “By transitioning from a service culture based on human interaction to a business model structured around transactional processes, the airlines have sunk their own ship. The appalling spectacles we all watch online are created in a vacuum of neglect. It is basic human psychology. Just as a child left alone in his crib will cry for attention, a grown-up who doesn’t feel valued and appreciated is going to throw a fit…
On the Good Old Days of Flying
Before JetBlue, Slater flew with TWA where “we staffed our 757 with 7 flight attendants. It was never about the hot towels or the Chicken Kiev. Rather, the fact that there was always somebody physically with you, interacting with you, engaging. I can fly Spirit from coast-to-coast in a small airplane in my cramped seat with no amenities and come off having had the best flight ever if the crew was warm and hospitable. Or I can be wined and dined by a jaded and aloof legacy airline crew working with minimum staff and come off feeling resentful at the other end.”
The airlines have discounted the invaluable worth of human connection and cheapened the whole thing by making the very people whose life’s ambition has been to extend heartfelt hospitality into ancillary figures. I do wax nostalgic for the good old days because I remember what it meant to treat our passengers like guests in our homes. When we were more likely to say, “You’re welcome” than “I’m sorry.” That said, air travel has always been challenging, weather has always been a factor, and mechanical items break.
Why Cameras on Planes are Good and Bad
“I’m fortunate to have performed my little stunt before the advent of the iPhone. By the grace of God, there aren’t 70 videos of me jumping out of an airplane on YouTube. Were that the case, I could never show my face at Whole Foods again. So technology is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, everybody is afraid to do their job because of a few entitled bullies and a handful of lazy, slacker “journalists” who would snip 4 seconds of a 23 minute video for a clickbait lead (Twitter is not a newsroom) instead of telling an impartial and informative story that happens to depict a crew member as the experienced professionals they are.
“Yet, we can be entirely grateful for a medium that exposes the absolute underbelly of a level of ungracious behavior that seems to exist only at 35,000 feet because, truth be told, if I didn’t see videos of passengers refusing service from flight attendants of a specific race, for example, I would not believe that such indignities existed. And while it may seem hypocritical coming from one who was once facing air piracy charges, I’m grateful to cellular phone technology for providing us with critical evidence to be used in the courtroom against some of this outrageous passenger behavior which the legal system has never taken anywhere near seriously enough.
His Favorite Airline?
“Amtrak.”
What Airline Would He Work for Today?
“Years ago, I was hired with MGM Grand Air when they still flew luxury DC-8s between New York and Los Angeles. My training class was canceled and I ended up managing the men’s department at the Broadway department store in Los Angeles instead, but I always thought it would have been fabulous to do that gorgeous service on those legendary airplanes.
“I ran away and joined the airlines because I just knew there had to be more to life than Thousand Oaks California. If I were to go back and do it again, I would join a charter airline like Omni or Atlas so I could really do some exotic expeditions. I always wanted to do the Hajj or fly deep into Africa on an 8 day trip with a pair of drawers and a swimsuit. I still have the wanderlust. Let’s go!”
Making the Best Out of a Bad Situation
We had one last pressing question for Slater: what can passengers do better when it comes to interacting with flight attendants, and what can flight attendants do better to deescalate problems? Said Slater, “All I ever asked for was eye contact and a thank you. And I was always amazed how easy my job was if I simply smiled at the start of an interaction, whether there was really anything to smile about or not. Working for an airline was often like being trapped in a domestic violence situation. But I often had to remind myself, my customers were hostages as well. Once I sought out the commonalities and not the differences, I met some truly remarkable people, many of whom I’m still in contact with today. It was a great ride.”
I wonder if he ever paid back the airline for the cost of the slide repack.
"Profound. You must be proud of yourself, Global321, putting down someone you don’t even know. With passengers like you, it’s a wonder that more flight professionals don’t emulate Mr. Slater’s actions." AAnomore, you must be ashamed of that baseless comment/attack on me. 100% I am putting down someone who caused damage to a plane, cause a major flight delay when the plane had to be taken out of service and delaying all the people that were to fly on that plane.
AS Flyer, since he only came back into public view after the Throwback Thursday article, and states that he prefers to live in anonymity, I think your criticism is a little harsh. Mr Slater clearly had a crisis almost a decade ago. It sounds as though he has recovered, and reached a much happier phase in his life. His insights and thoughts were, I thought, interesting. it's a shame that your curmudgeonly attitude detracts from the positivity that I found in the article.
Steven - best wishes to you and congratulation on finding your voice. While I'm there I can attest to having never heard "the windshield is bigger than the rear-view mirror" and you are absolutely right with that. That phrase is now being adopted into my vocabulary. I wish I could apologize for other people's rudeness on this forum... but alas we have become a judgmental group where being the first to post is more important than caring about people as human beings, or their feelings. You can be sure if I see you, I'll smile and say thank you. Ehud Gavron FAA CPL-H Tucson AZ US
Can we please just let Steven Slaters legacy fade into oblivion. Just as he did that fateful day, he seeks attention over and over and over. Let it go.