Initial reports indicated that as JetBlue Flight 1052 taxied to a stop at JFK Airport on August 9, 2010, a passenger stood up to retrieve his bag from the overhead compartment. Wishing to instruct the passenger to remain seated, Slater approached him only to have the bag hit his head as it was removed. After Slater asked for an apology, the passenger responded by hurling obscenities at the flight attendant.[1]

Howard Turman, who is Slater's defense attorney, has given a different version in which the altercation had been between two female passengers over allocation of overhead spaces at the beginning of the flight from Pittsburgh, and it was then that Slater was hit on the head. Once the plane landed, the dispute flared again when one of the women complained that she could not get to her bag for check-in and started to swear at him.[2]

Slater returned the obscenities by announcing them over the public address system. According to a passenger aboard the flight, Mr. Slater announced over the aircraft's intercom, "To the passenger who just called me a motherfucker, fuck you. I've been in this business 28 years and I've had it," and then activated the emergency inflatable slide located in the right forward door (opposite the standard left-side boarding door) onto the tarmac and exited the plane but not before grabbing two beers from the galley. He slid down the chute, ran to his car parked nearby and drove to his home in Queens, New York.

Later that day, Slater was arrested at his home and charged with criminal mischief, trespassing, and reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $2,500.00. Slater pleaded not guilty to the charges. Having failed to post bail, he continues to be held at the Vernon C. Bain Correctional Center, a South Bronx jail on a floating barge.[2] He has been charged with 2nd-and 4th-degree criminal mischief, 1st- and 2nd-degree reckless endangerment and criminal trespass in the 3rd degree.[2] Turman said that Slater did not endanger anyone when he activated the emergency slide.[3]

The identity of the passenger who caused the bag to hit Slater's head and who cursed at him is currently unknown. Judge Mary O'Donoghue has granted an order of protection preventing Slater from contacting the pilot or the JetBlue employee who investigated the incident.[2][4][5][6][7][8]

Turman said Slater was personally affected by the events of Flight 800 and 9/11. The lawyer pointed out that Slater was scheduled to work on the return voyage of flight 800 and had personally lost a lot of friends from the disaster. Slater has been working as a flight attendant from the age of 19. The issue, says Turman, is about the rudeness and lack of civility from passengers. Slater's actions have drawn some sympathy from the public with a Facebook page set up in his honor with over 79,000 members and some posters calling for the arrest of the disobedient passenger.

 

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Slater