Steven Slater paying JetBlue back

The former JetBlue flight attendant who became so irate with a passenger on a plane at Kennedy Airport that he snatched a cache of beer and slid down the aircraft's emergency chute last year has finished a court-ordered mental health program and has begun paying the airline $10,000 in restitution, officials said Wednesday.

Steven Slater, 39, of Belle Harbor, Queens, had pleaded guilty last year to attempted criminal mischief charges in connection with the Aug. 9, 2010, tantrum sparked by an in-cabin dispute.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Wednesday that Slater completed a 12-month court-supervised alternative sentencing program and was sentenced to a year of probation.

"I am satisfied, under the circumstances, that the outcome of this case benefits society by fairly balancing the seriousness of the charges against the defendant's need for rehabilitation," Brown said in a statement.

The announcement comes a year after Slater appeared in Queens Mental Health Court before Supreme Court Justice Marcia P. Hirsch, where Slater entered a conditional plea of guilty to attempted second-degree criminal mischief and attempted fourth-degree criminal mischief.

He was then enrolled in the mental health alternative sentencing program and agreed to reimburse JetBlue $10,000 for the cost of replacing or repairing the escape chute he deployed in a non-emergency situation, an act prosecutors said could have injured ground crew workers.

Slater, who paid $500 Wednesday toward the restitution, is on a payment plan that requires him to make monthly payments of $831.25 to the Department of Probation, which forwards the money to JetBlue.

"He has a minor misdemeanor conviction and he has to pay restitution and he will be on probation for a year," said Slater's attorney, Daniel Horwitz of Manhattan, adding that Slater is working on a book and now writes articles as an expert on the airline industry. "He's happy to put the case behind him and to move on with his life."