VIDEO: JetBlue Flight Attendant's Mom Says She Would "Have Snapped Too"
Aug. 10 2010, Published 8:34 a.m. ET
There must be a short fuse running through the Slater family. Diane Slater, the mom of JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater, defended her son’s recent behavior on a flight when he cursed passengers and slid down the plane’s emergency exit slide after a standoff with a passenger.
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“I can understand why he snapped,” Diane told assembled reporters outside her home on Tuesday.
“I would have snapped too. In fact, I probably would have snapped more.”
She added: "I think he just had a very small meltdown, and I think he deserved to be able to have that meltdown, if you saw the egg on his head here where he got smacked."
According to reports, a passenger accidentally hit Steven in the head with the bag she was trying to remove from an overhead compartment. An upset Slater then cursed over the plane’s public-address system before exiting the plane using the emergency slide.
Slater was arrested after the incident and a judge set his bail at $2,500 on Tuesday. He faces up to seven years behind bars after was he was charged with reckless endangerment and other offenses. He is due back in court on September 7.