It starts when an airline passenger insists on cramming oversized luggage into the overhead compartment or when they want to unload it before the plane lands. Luggage often becomes the catalyst for disagreements between passengers and flight attendants, said some at Pittsburgh International Airport on Tuesday.

Flight attendants step in and their patience is tested on what seems like a breeding ground for in-flight brawls. Some, like JetBlue attendant Steven Slater, who was recently accused of cursing out a passenger, lose it when faced with a disgruntled passenger.

Other flight attendants at the airport sympathized with Mr. Slater. And while they might not have gone to the same lengths, they could recall passenger horror stories, some involving luggage.

Stacey Brieda, 52, a Northwest/Delta flight attendant, gave Mr. Slater a thumbs-up. She did not agree with his exit on the emergency chute, but could understand his frustrations.

Just three weeks ago, covered in blood and missing a filling, Ms. Brieda was left looking like she stepped out of a bar fight, not off a plane. After trying to help a passenger find another place for his oversized luggage when it would not fit into the overhead compartment, the luggage hit her on the right side of the face.

The passenger cursed at Ms. Brieda and did not apologize.

"I was so sad," she said. "There's no respect."

After 20 years as a flight attendant, Trudy Brownlee, 47, can understand Mr. Slater's actions.

"At one point or another I'm sure we've all been to that level," she said. "[Passengers] can drive you to that point, trust me."

Mr. Slater's snap was broadcast -- literally -- throughout the airplane cabin, said Phil Catelinet, a Johnstown native now living in Brooklyn who was onboard the flight as it landed at JFK.

"I heard him make this announcement: 'To the passenger who called me a [expletive.] I'm done with this job,'" Mr. Catelinet said.

With that, Mr. Slater vanished.

After the passengers disembarked, Mr. Catelinet said he saw an airplane door open. He boarded the transit train at the airport where he saw Mr. Slater speaking with another passenger.

"The other passenger asked him what happened back there and Slater said, 'You know, somebody with a bag hit me on the head. It put the capper on a really bad day. That's it. I'm done with this. I'm looking forward to doing something else,' " Mr. Catelinet recalled.

He said Mr. Slater then mimed pulling the slide that released the escape chute.

"He said, 'Oh, that plane's done for the day. They're going to have to take it out of service. It's going to miss a few flights,' " Mr. Catelinet said.

A writer and musician who pays his bills working days in the computer networking department of a Manhattan law firm, Mr. Catelinet was returning to New York from a weekend visit to Pittsburgh, where he joined friends at Saturday's Pirates-Rockies game. He said he noticed a scratch on Mr. Slater's head during the post-flight train ride, but didn't know if he received it at the beginning or end of the flight.

While Mr. Slater's dramatic exit from his career in aviation brought a rush of online applause Tuesday, Mr. Catelinet's reviews were mixed.

"On one hand, it's funny," Mr. Catelinet said. "Everybody wishes on some level when they have a bad day, and want to tell the boss to shove it and quit and do it in a dramatic fashion.

"On the other hand, you don't want to think of a flight attendant losing his cool like that."

Molly Wolf, 20, a flight attendant for Colgan Air Inc., said she has to stay calm every day, despite passengers' dirty looks or refusals to follow the rules.

"You have to be patient," she said. "You don't have a choice."

And while patience might be key in the industry, when flight attendants are hit in the head with luggage, cursed at or called "waitress," as Ms. Brieda has been, their patience is put to the test. And the disrespect can be confusing, Ms. Brieda said.

"We're there for your safety first," she said. "You're going to look to us if there's an emergency. ... We still respect the passenger."

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