Former Flight Attendent Still Faces Criminal Charges

Steven Slater, the JetBlue flight attendant who famously (or infamously) quit his job with a profanity-peppered screed at a plane full of passengers followed by a hasty exit down an emergency slide ... beer in hand, has left the company completely, according to the airline.

Despite his announcement last month to the passengers of a flight which had landed in New York that he was fed up with his job, his exit from the company did not officially come until late last week. JetBlue had said Slater had been "suspended" pending an investigation. Several passengers had come forward to say the FA had been "surly" and "brusque" during the 90 minute flight from Pittsburgh. One even portrayed Slater as the instigator of the incident which led to his slide to the ranks of the unemployed.

The newspaper The Blaze reports that JetBlue would only confirm that he was no longer employed by the airline. They declined to release any other details, citing privacy issues. The former FA still faces criminal charges stemming from the incident, including trespassing, criminal mischief, and reckless endangerment. And, as seems to happen so often in these kinds of case these days, he's become something of a folk hero on the Internet, with tens of thousands of online fans.

FMI: www.jetblue.com