The dude did what he felt he needed to do, he will face retribution, likely overdone, because the airlines and Homeland Security will be anxious to curb any encore or copycat acts.
The presumably ill-behaved passenger, unlike the flight attendant who would not have lasted very long if he was terribly ill-mannered, is probably a repeat offender, and fully culpable for his actions, but will face no recrimination.
My suspicion is that many passengers, even if thus inconvenienced, probably found the incident amusing, intriguing or otherwise entertaining. The airlines could view their stupendous loss due to restuffing the slide as a staff instigated spot check on the safety gear. Before we fall into the security over freedom trap here in our thinking I believe we should ask ourselves: if the attendant had simply said, "Effu" to the passenger and the passenger asked to file a complaint would the airline or homeland security have had any qualms about suspending the attendant without pay INSTANTLY.
As Chrissy once said on Three's Company, "What's Goose for the Girl is Good for the Gander!" I say let the airlines file a civil suit for their alleged damages against the flight attendant. If they have a contract which forbids them quitting their job whenever they wish shame on labor laws for allowing such a thing--If the loss of one flight attendant unacceptably diminished the security of the nation or the safety of the passengers then throw the decision makers at the airlines in jail for ridiculously under-staffing.
The presumably ill-behaved passenger, unlike the flight attendant who would not have lasted very long if he was terribly ill-mannered, is probably a repeat offender, and fully culpable for his actions, but will face no recrimination.
My suspicion is that many passengers, even if thus inconvenienced, probably found the incident amusing, intriguing or otherwise entertaining. The airlines could view their stupendous loss due to restuffing the slide as a staff instigated spot check on the safety gear. Before we fall into the security over freedom trap here in our thinking I believe we should ask ourselves: if the attendant had simply said, "Effu" to the passenger and the passenger asked to file a complaint would the airline or homeland security have had any qualms about suspending the attendant without pay INSTANTLY.
As Chrissy once said on Three's Company, "What's Goose for the Girl is Good for the Gander!" I say let the airlines file a civil suit for their alleged damages against the flight attendant. If they have a contract which forbids them quitting their job whenever they wish shame on labor laws for allowing such a thing--If the loss of one flight attendant unacceptably diminished the security of the nation or the safety of the passengers then throw the decision makers at the airlines in jail for ridiculously under-staffing.