• by Tanya Gazdik , August 10, 2010

Fed-up JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater's 15 minutes of fame are ticking down, but the repercussions for the airline, which is largely trying to ignore the incident, are just beginning to play out.

The New York-based airline suspended the longtime employee Tuesday "pending an investigation" after accusations that he cursed out a passenger over a plane's loudspeakers, took beer from the galley and exited via an emergency slide. Slater's court-appointed lawyer said the passenger provoked him. Slater, 38, was arraigned on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment and trespassing and bail was set at $2,500.

Henry H. Harteveldt, vice president and principal analyst, airline and travel research at Forrester Research, calls it an "extremely unfortunate case" of "an employee who just, frankly, snapped."

How the airline handles the incident from a PR standpoint will likely depend on how the case plays out in the legal system, Harteveldt tells Marketing Daily. As of Tuesday afternoon, JetBlue was not responding to specific requests for information. In a statement, JetBlue confirmed that a side chute deployed on the flight from Pittsburgh to New York, which was carrying about 100 passengers.

The airline also said that no one was hurt and that all passengers got off the plane through the jetway. "At this time, we are working with the FAA and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to investigate the incident," the statement said. "At no time was the security or safety of our customers or crew members at risk."

The airline is not responding on its Facebook page, which currently makes no reference to the incident. It is likely to be deleting comments on its page, considering Slater's growing presence elsewhere on the Internet.

Slater is the No. 1-trending topic on Twitter nationwide. Facebook fan pages include "I hate the m-----f----r who called Steven Slater a m-----f----r," and the "Steven Slater Legal Defense Fund" Facebook page claims to be collecting funds for Steven Slater's legal defense costs.

An msnbc.com poll as of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday had half of the 91,759 voters deeming Slater a hero, while only 10% said he was an "idiot." However, 30% said "he's not a hero, he's not a villain, he's just plain crazy" and 10% indicated they didn't know what to make of the incident.

Harteveldt says he thinks the airline "should continue to focus on the things that really do matter to its customers, such as running a reliable airline, and offering good fares." He says he understands that while the public is looking at Slater like the characters from "Thelma and Louise," who chose to go out with a flare (in the movie's case, by driving off a cliff) what Slater did was actually "highly irresponsible" because someone could have been injured by the deployment of the emergency slide (which reportedly will cost the airline $25,000 to replace, not to mention the downtime while doing so.)

"This is not a person who should be celebrated as a hero," Harteveldt says. "This is a person who, I think, frankly should be pitied. ... I think in retrospect a lot of people will realize that what he did ultimately will not be of any benefit to himself. I think he demeaned the profession of flight attendants."

Michelle Deal-Zimmerman, a reporter and blogger for The Baltimore Sun, headlined her online piece: "Steven Slater, I kinda love you." She says she initially thought he had lost his mind, "but once I read more about Steven Slater -- did you know he was a member of JetBlue's values team? -- the more I liked him for taking a stand . ... he was giving the finger to the rude passengers, impatient travelers and inconsiderate seatmates everywhere."