Steven Slater, JetBlue Flight Attendant, Curses Passenger, Grabs A Brew And Slides Into Trouble

NEW YORK (CBS/WCBS) Steven Slater, a fed-up JetBlue flight attendant, slid into infamy Monday after cursing out an uncooperative passenger over the loudspeaker, grabbing a beer and pulling the emergency exit slide.

"That's it, I'm done," Slater said on his way out, according to another passenger.

PICTURES: Steven Slater, JetBlue Flight Attendant

The trouble started when an impatient passenger jumped up before the seatbelt sign was turned off to grab her luggage after the plane landed at Kennedy International Airport. She reportedly ignored Slater when he told her to sit down, and when Slater approached the passenger to tell her again to sit down he got hit in the head with her falling bag. When he asked her to apologize she responded with a foul refusal, according to reports.

That, apparently, was the wrong answer.

Authorities said Slater dropped several f-bombs over the plane's loud speaker, grabbed two beers, deployed the plane's emergency slide, and ran to his car.

Police were notified about 25 minutes later and Slater was eventually arrested at his home.

Sporting a cut on his forehead from fallen overhead baggage, Slater walked out of Port Authority Police Headquarters handcuffed with a smirk on his face and absolutely nothing to say, CBS affiliate WCBS reports.

But passenger Philip Catelinet said Slater had plenty to say over the plane's public announcement system while he was on board JetBlue Flight 1052 out of Pittsburgh on Monday afternoon.

"He said, 'to the passenger who called me a (expletive expletive, expletive) you. I've been in this business 28 years. And that's it, I'm done'," Catelinet told WCBS.

"You know, you don't want to see a flight attendant lose their cool like that," Catelinet told the station. "I'm glad it happened on the ground and not anywhere in the air."

JetBlue Airways Corp. said in a statement that it was working with the Federal Aviation Administration and Port Authority police to investigate the matter. It said the safety of its customers and crew members was never at risk.

According to a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, Slater is being charged with 2nd- and 4th-degree criminal mischief, 1st- and 2nd-degree reckless endangerment and criminal trespass in the 3rd degree.

If convicted he could get seven years in prison.

Reporting Contributed by CBS Affiliate WCBS