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Not One Passenger On Flight Backs Up Slater's Story
By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 9, 2010
Modified Sep 9, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Sep 9, 2010
Modified Sep 9, 2010
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Former JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater was a folk hero for longer than most of us will ever be, but his status fell fast as passengers on the now-famous flight told their side of the story. And now the Wall Street Journal reports that following investigations by two agencies, during which time every single passenger and crew member were interviewed, no one on board the flight backed up Slater's story.
Slater had claimed he took to the intercom after a passenger was rude to him, he declared: "To the passenger who called me a motherfucker, fuck you. I've been in the business 28 years. I've had it. That's it." And then grabbed a couple beers and slid down the emergency slide he activated.
The Port Authority police say that "absolutely no one" corroborated his story, and some found him to be belligerent during the flight. A spokesman added, "This department spent a lot of time and money on this. He got his 15 minutes of fame, everyone became enamored with him but his story is totally uncorroborated by witness accounts." Slater's lawyer says, "I'm not going to discuss what happened that day. We're dealing with that in the court of law" (on October 19th).
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Steven Slater
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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