A US flight attendant who bolted from a just-arrived aircraft in New York by deploying and sliding down the inflatable emergency chute following an altercation with a passenger has been released on bail.
Jetblue flight attendant Steven Slater was arrested at his home in the New York borough of Queens after fleeing from John F Kennedy International Airport on Monday.
Mr Slater (38) had reportedly quarrelled with a passenger fiddling with his luggage after landing but before the Embraer 190 arriving from Pittsburgh had come to a complete stop.
The flight attendant took over the intercom and called the passenger a 12-letter epithet beginning with "m" and then told everyone: "I've been in the business 28 years. I've had it. That's it."
Mr Slater then grabbed at least one beer, activated the slide, and ran to his car.
He has been charged with felonies but elevated to folk-hero status by thousands who shrugged off allegations that he endangered others and praised him for his take-this-job-and-shove-it moment.
Mr Slater, whose father was an airline pilot, wore a slight smile yesterday as he was led into a state court in Queens to be arraigned on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing, counts that carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison. The judge set his bail at $2,500.
Hours later, he was freed from a Bronx detention centre after posting bail. Stephen Morello, a spokesman for the city's Department of Correction, didn't have details on who posted bail.
"It seems like something here has resonated with a few people. And that's kinda neat," Mr Slater told reporters as he left the Vernon C Bain Centre before being whisked away in a car.
Mr Slater, who lives steps from the Queens beach a few miles from the airport, had been flying long enough to see much of the gleam of the air travel experience tarnished by frayed nerves, rising fees, plummeting airline profits and packed cabins.
"One by one all of these niceties have been removed from the customer experience. I think subconsciously, it's causing passengers to be very angry," said Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer Guides and daughter of Arthur Frommer. "There's an us-versus-them mentality."
Sentiment online appeared to fall in Mr Slater's court. More than 86,000 people have declared themselves supporters of Mr Slater's on Facebook, and the number was growing by thousands every hour. At least one fan set up a legal fund on his behalf.
"Overwhelmingly people said it should have been the passenger who was ejected from the plane," said George Hobica, founder of AirfareWatchdog.com, speaking about response to his site's blog on the incident. "I've never seen such an outpouring of support for a flight attendant."
Mr Slater's attorney, Howard Turman, said his client had been drawn into a fight between two female passengers over space in the overhead bins as the Pittsburgh-to-New York flight was awaiting takeoff. Somehow, Mr Slater was hit in the head, Mr Turman said.
After JetBlue Flight 1052 landed in New York, one of the women who had been asked to gate-check her bag was enraged that it wasn't immediately available, Mr Turman said.
"The woman was outraged and cursed him out a great deal," Mr Turman said. "At some point, I think he just wanted to avoid conflict with her."
That's when he deployed the slide, Mr Turman said. A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the airport, said Mr Slater took at least one beer from the plane galley on his way out.
"Those of you who have shown dignity and respect these last 20 years, thanks for a great ride," Mr Slater said over the plane's loudspeaker, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said Mr Slater's actions could have been deadly if ground crew workers had been hit by the emergency slide, which deploys with a force of 3,000 pounds per square inch. Mr Turman said Mr Slater had opened the hatch and made sure no one was in the slide's path before deploying it.
Passenger Phil Catelinet said he heard Mr Slater's profanity-laced announcement over the public address system before he left the plane. He said Mr Slater ended by saying, "I've had it." He described the announcement as "the most interesting part of the day to that point" but didn't see Mr Slater use the exit slide or grab the beer.
It wasn't until he saw Mr Slater on an airport train and overheard him talking about the escapade that he put it together.
"He was smiling. He was happy he'd done this," Mr Catelinet told NBC's Today.
JetBlue spokesman Mateo Lleras said Mr Slater had been removed from duty pending an investigation. Prosecutors said no criminal allegations had been made against the passenger.
Mr Turman said Slater was under stress because his mother Diane has lung cancer. His father, a pilot for American Airlines, died more than a decade ago.
Agencies