The flight attendant whose dramatic departure from a JetBlue plane at a New York City airport has transformed him into a folk hero to some wants his job back, his lawyer told reporters Thursday.

“That’s his life,” Steven Slater’s Legal Aid defense attorney Howard Turman told reporters outside his client’s home in Queens, near John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Slater’s exit via an emergency slide vaulted him to national attention. “His father was a pilot; his mother was a flight attendant. That’s in his blood. That’s what he likes to do.”

Whether Slater can regain his wings was unclear. “We’re conducting an internal investigation regarding his status as an employee at JetBlue,” said airline spokeswoman Jenny Dervin, who added that Slater has been removed from duty pending the outcome of that internal inquiry.

She described Slater’s behavior as unlike that of the New York-based airline’s other 2,300 flight attendants. “I would say this is highly unique,” she said.

But an internal memo sent Thursday by JetBlue Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Rob Maruster and obtained by CNN describes a company that appears unlikely to forgive. “Intentionally arming and deploying an evacuation slide for anything other than the express purpose of protecting the safety of our crew and customers is unacceptable,” it says. “It will not, and can not, be tolerated.”

During the defense lawyer’s remarks, the 20-year flight attendant stood at his side and smiled occasionally but made only one brief remark: “Thank you all so much,” he said. “It’s been amazing — the support and the love and everything that’s been brought to me and given to me by my community and my friends and the industry at large. It’s been absolutely wonderful.”

(Source: CNN)