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JetBlue Plays It Smart (and Serious) After Steven Slater Incident

By Brett Snyder

Updated on: August 13, 2010 / 2:50 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

It took JetBlue (JBLU) awhile, but the airline is finally speaking to its employees about the Steven Slater incident, where he took some beer, popped the evacuation slide, and slid on down. The BlueNote letter to crewmembers (PDF) that went out from Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster was absolutely excellent, and shows that the airline's priorities are in the right place.

The letter starts by simply explaining the facts that are known. Those facts are pretty sparse for the moment, as the investigation continues. There is some discussion elsewhere that flight attendant Steven Slater made up the whole story to garner sympathy. But JetBlue avoided speculation about that. Instead, Rob simply dove into the boring particulars, and after that, he made two real points that I think are very important.

"JetBlue will always seek to prosecute people who physically harm or threaten to harm a Crewmember or Customer. Period."
"However, if Mr. Slater's story proves to be accurate, and even if there was a precipitating event that motivated his behavior, that still doesn't excuse his actions."

If you work for JetBlue, these are the two points you want to hear, and they were said quite well. The fact that the first point was made first (and was put in bold type) clearly shows where the airline's priorities are. Crewmembers come first. Bravo.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, every flight attendant has had a fantasy of doing something along these lines, but most of them never would even consider doing it. It's incredibly unprofessional. It's also dangerous. As Rob says:

The most distressing aspect of the media coverage has been the lightness with which they are treating the deployment of the emergency slide. Slides deploy extremely quickly, with enough force to kill a person. Slides can be as dangerous as a gun, and that's the reason we have intensive initial and recurrent training. It is an insult to all aviation professionals to have this particular element of the story treated without the seriousness it deserves.

Very true. Sure, being a flight attendant is stressful, but that's the whole point of the job. When things go wrong, a flight attendant needs to be able to react quickly and appropriately in the highest stress situation of all. I would be very concerned about Steven Slater's ability to handle his passengers' safety in a stressful situation when he can't even handle his own.

JetBlue hasn't said much in the media so far, and many have said that's a mistake. I don't feel the same way. The most important thing is to make sure the airline's employees are ok. JetBlue should have released this letter earlier, but at least it's out now.

But for the media, well, I honestly don't know that JetBlue's participation is necessary amid the ensuing circus. The press hasn't been negative about JetBlue for the most part, so it's probably best to just leave the story alone in the absence of additional facts. The better outlets will eventually get the story right, and if what's happening now doesn't hurt JetBlue, then it's smart for JetBlue to simply worry about its own people.

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[Photo via Flickr user WexDub]