Is Steven Slater’s heroic quitting story a hoax?

When legacy flight attendant Steven Slater slid down Jet Blue’s emergency chute and into the hearts of the world with an quitting story of cinematic quality, we all saluted him. It may have been a foolish move to get on the P.A. system and curse everyone before stealing beer and damaging the emergency chute, but it was something we’ve all dreamed of doing. Steven claimed that a passenger passive aggressively knocked him on the head with her luggage prior to his tirade, and haven’t we all wanted to say what was on our mind after poor treatment by a customer or coworker?

But it turns out that nice little story might not be exactly true according to passengers who were on that flight with Slater. They claim that he was the one behaving badly prior to his meltdown, not another passenger, and even seemed already drunk.

This complicates things for those of us who were signing up for his Facebook group, or waiting to watch him in a reality show. Could it be that our Steven Slater, folk hero extraordinaire was just simply a bad employee and not a fed-up one? If this dream quitting story isn’t on the level, it’s a devastating blow to our delicate, gossamer hopes.