… police custody yesterday (above) after flying off the handle and then sliding down an escape chute like this. (Kendall Rodriguez)
… and then sliding down an escape chute like this. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Oh, chute, he’s in trouble now.
A JetBlue flight attendant lost his cool after his plane landed at JFK yesterday, hurled obscenities at passengers over the airliner’s PA system — then deployed the inflatable emergency chute, slid down and fled, authorities said.
Attendant-turned-wing-nut Steven Slater’s meltdown was preceded by an argument with a passenger who had told the 39-year-old airline employee from Queens “to f – – k off” after Slater asked him not to remove his baggage from the overhead compartment until the plane had fully stopped, sources said.
The passenger wound up opening his overhead compartment anyway — striking the seething Slater on the head with the door as it dropped down.
After the plane, which arrived from Pittsburgh, pulled up to Gate 3 at the JetBlue terminal and the Jetway was put in place, passengers began moving to the door.
Suddenly, Slater, who told authorities he is HIV positive, commandeered the public-address system and launched into a tirade, officials said.
“To the f – – king asshole that told me to f – – k off, it’s been a good 28 years!” Slater bellowed incoherently, according to law-enforcement sources.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
In a move fitting for an action flick, Slater then grabbed his two bags — and a can of beer from the galley — and popped the lever for the airliner’s inflatable chute before sliding to the tarmac outside the terminal door.
The plane’s first officer, Scott Bienz — who had heard Slater’s rant from a restroom — told investigators that he tried to block the enraged flight attendant from getting to the emergency chute, but was unable to hold him back.
Slater, asked later by incredulous investigators if he actually grabbed his luggage before fleeing, coolly responded:
“Oh, yes. I threw the bags onto the chute. Then I slid down after them,” sources told The Post.
About 100 passengers were aboard the Embraer 190 aircraft at the time.
Once on the tarmac, Slater boarded the AirTrain to pick up his silver Jeep Wrangler and raced home to Belle Harbor, where he hopped into bed with his boyfriend, a source said.
Cops nabbed him at home. He was charged with criminal mischief and reckless endangerment.
Passenger Phil Catelinet said the flight was unremarkable — until Slater went bonkers.
“I’ve had it!” he said Slater shouted over the loudspeaker, according to Catelinet’s blog.
Catelinet said, “I looked at everyone around me, all of us surprised to have just heard that over an airplane intercom. The other flight attendants were talking about someone who was having a really bad day.”
On his Facebook page, Slater lists “fashion, interior decorating, spirituality and recovery among [his] interests.” The only book he references is “Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve and Twelve.”
His LinkedIn profile indicates that he started with Business Express Airlines in 1994 before moving on to TWA and Delta.
He left aviation for a “daily grind 9-5 ‘real job’ ” in the Burberry shop at Bloomingdale’s before joining JetBlue in January 2008, according to his My Space page.
“I am enjoying being back in the skies,” he wrote. “Beating alcoholism and substance abuse one day at a time.”
A neighbor, Kurt Karakowski, said about 50 cops showed up to cart Slater off.
“It was exactly like something out of a movie. You knew that he did something, that this wasn’t a parking ticket,” Karakowski said. “I thought he robbed a bank.”
Additional reporting by Tom Topousis and Rebecca Harshbarger