If you choose air travel, and do it often, then you’ll know that’s gotten more and more unpleasant. Baggage fees, rude passengers, frustrated and tired flight crews, and oh yeah: the rude and often times irate passengers who believe screaming and yelling will get them what they want.

Me? I’ve been in the air too much in the last few years. I’ve racked up enough mileage on certain airlines, that if they ever go galactic, I’d probably be able to cash all those miles in for a free ticket to Mars. (*Oh please, oh please, let this happen!*)

If you ever take the time to chit-chat with the crew, you’ll find that it’s not always pleasant dealing with nasty, silly, rude and crude passengers. Surprise: they like to do their jobs without people getting all upset and in their face about it. Shocking, no?

99% of the time, the flight crew ask you to do something (like sitting in your seat until they get to the jetway), for your own safety and of other people. Yet, we travelers often forget that. We forget that flying, as safe as it is, is a relatively dangerous thing.

You didn’t think those death clauses in travel insurance policies were for the fun of it, did you?

Yes, sometimes you need to go when the fasten seat belt sign comes on and you might have to hold it for a few minutes and that’s sometimes not so pleasant, but a simple courteous “I’ve really got to go” is sometimes sufficient enough to get you a trip to the potty in rough turbulence.

If you haven’t worked any type of service industry before, then it’s hard to relate. But having spent years flipping a few burgers, bussing tables, and waiting tables, I totally know what it’s like. Sometimes, people take things really poorly, especially when they feel they have a sense of entitlement to a thing since they paid for another thing.

I totally understand and empathize with the entire flight crew.

Oh…you’re looking for a reason of this post. If you’ve made it this far, here it is:

A JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater, asked a passenger who stood up to grab his bag from the overhead compartment shortly after the plane landed and still taxing.

Steve, doing his job, got up and went to ask the dude in question to sit down, but was instead hit with the bag as it was coming down from the compartment. The story goes, Steve asked for an apology (I think it’s the right thing to do), but didn’t get an apology.

I imagine the passenger probably said something like “it’s an f’ing free country” or something along those lines.

Instead of slugging the guy one (which I would have done and gotten arrested for), Steve got on the mic and announced something to the whole plane. Pulled the emergency escape chute (must’ve been pretty cool to see, I’ve always wanted to try that slide), grabbed a beer, and signed off on a 20 year career.

Check out the full details over at NYTimes.com.

All-in-all, I have to support (and most of the Editors here do as well) Steve Slater. Okay, he’s jobless or will be soon, got arrested for doing what he did because it endangered other people, but still, I support the man for going out with style.

Besides, I think the passenger in question should also be questioned for why he got up before the plane was properly parked.

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