Hit the Slide: Yet one more opinion on the runaway flight attendant

If you have not heard about the flight attendant that 'snapped his cap', chewed out the passengers on the PA system, grabbed some beer, opened the door (activating the escape slide) and jumped out of the plane and, to quote the song went "Slip, slide and away".....come out from under your rock and get some air.

There are alot of ways to blog about this but I will save the levity for the end.  There is plenty of sympathy for this chap within the working world and  the FA (flight attendant) community in particular but the reality is this, he broke the law and potentially endangered those around him.  All of that has been said but what had not been mentioned was his abandonment of his responsibility to the safety of his passengers, regardless how clueless or rude they may have been.

The following issues have been addressed repeatedly but I will highlight them quickly for reference:

• Cost to the airline for replacement of the slide and aircraft downtime is well in excess of $25,000
• Those slides deploy like canons and can kill someone under the right conditions
• The FAs are not badged for the ramp area so he committed a crime by being out there unescorted
• Others who were on the ramp during this may be in trouble for *SIDA violations
• His conduct reflects negatively on every FA in the industry

The real travesty here is not the security breach nor the potential threat nor even the financial impact.  The real offense is the abandonment of a safety critical responsibilty.  Despite the image, the real job of an FA is passenger safety.  There is a T-shirt FAs love that sums up their job.  It simply says: My job is to save your ass, not kiss it!  Inelegant but accurate.

Despite his tapping into worldwide employee angst and the emotional knee-jerk reaction of people to support him, he is no folk hero.  He abandoned his passengers as well as his responsibilty. Of course the talk and reality shows are already swooning over him and I hope he makes some money off of it because he is going to need it.  Aside from the criminal charges facing him he will likely have to reimburse the airline for their expenses.  Let us not forget no one made him work there.  He was free to quit and leave (in a normal fashion) at anytime.

Now for the humor (or at least my attempt):

Making a profane PA announcement...........................$0

Two airline beers.......................................................$10

Blowing an escape slide............................................$25,000

Having the Chinese news make a cartoon about you..,,PRICELESS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBvakgglAPM 

*SIDA is the Security Identification Display Area badge. You must have one to be on the airport ramp.