When I first heard about this, I misunderstood- I thought the whole thing had occurred when the plane was still in the air, and that Slater had made his escape by parachuting out, D.B. Cooper-style. That would've been AWESOME- but the real story is much less fun.
It's really just a guy who went apeshit and ran away from his job. I've had at least three co-workers do that in my life, and none of them got movie deals.