Interesting Video: Flight attendant hailed as working class hero...
Steven Slater, a flight attendant for Jet Blue exited the flight and most likely his job in a very interesting way yesterday. Apparently, pressures in his personal life and job finally reached a boiling point when a non-compliant passenger stood up to retrieve luggage while the plane was taxiing into NY's JFK airport.
What is even more fascinating is the way people around the world are now hailing him as a folk hero of sorts. A fan page on Facebook is rapidly climbing to 100,000 as of this morning. Shirts have been created and songs have been composed.
What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think this man should be treated as a hero or do you think he should be punished in some way? Have you or any of your co-workers "lost it" like this? Do you think this will encourage others to act out? Have you ever been annoyed by an obnoxious passenger on a flight?
I look forward to the discussion. 
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6 Answers
A lot of people are hailing him as a hero because many go through the frastrations he went through, but I feel sorry for him, its gonna be hard to find a new job given the publicity he got!
Tolenz said:
but I feel sorry for him, its gonna be hard to find a new job given the publicity he got!
I have a feeling he might be able to turn his fifteen minutes of fame into a little bit of cash. 
I wouldn´t call him a hero, but I can´t fault him either. It´s too bad that he allowed a jerk passenger to enrage him to the point of walking (sliding) away from his job. I would guess that he is being called a hero not because of his behaviour per se, but from having stood up to this jerk passenger, of which there are many. After working 17 in avaition myself, I must say Slater´s departure was with style.
I agree with both Gekko and Feliz. This man did nothing heroic. He basically just did something that many of us have thought of or dreamed of doing, but didn't.
What is surprising to me is how much this story resonates with so many people. Apparently, many, if not all, of us have had thoughts of putting someone in their place in grand style as this man did. But for most of us, the reality of losing our jobs, among other consequences, keeps us from reacting. So I guess many are able to live vicariously through Steven Slater. As we sit comfortably at home, outside of jail and with our jobs in tact, we can acknowledge that there have been times when we would have loved to do the same thing.
Here is just one example of how people are reacting:
I agree with (You,) Gekko although I would say that in some jobs that the pressure to remain calm at all times can be extremely stressful when faced with the some of the most obnoxious members of public you could possibly wish not to meet 
I wouldn't call really him a hero but he probably reacted like many/most of us would like to have done when faced with people who frankly speaking are a pain in the neck lol
In my view the 'High pressure' jobs include: Social workers, Teachers, Air cabin crews, Hospital doctors/nurses (especially in Accident and Emergency), Paramedics, Fire officers and people on front line services where they are expected to remain calm at all times, Smile all/most of the time, and never blow their top at difficult members of public eg passengers.
Finally, the trouble is that, those people who do their jobs,performing to an extremely high level and remaining calm under pressure barely get noticed- just taken for granted because people just expect that from them...whereas those individuals who blow it/ mess up/screw it up seem to get the publicity and the attention.
When I fly to Isreal next week I will try to make a special effort to appreciate the cabin crew who work so hard to serve the public 
I wouldn't say he's a hero, because he did nothing heroic. Technically speaking, he went against his training and flew off his handle, when he should have been able to deal even with the most idiotic, stressful and obnoxious of passengers.
To his credit, though, he avoided assaulting the passenger, which is what many of us may feel like doing, and he quit spectacularly and in great style.
