A JetBlue Airways attendant on a flight from Pittsburgh unleashed a string of obscenities at passengers Monday before announcing his resignation, grabbing beer from the galley and using the plane's emergency slide to begin a short-lived getaway, an official said.

Steven Slater, 39, of Queens, N.Y., faces charges of criminal mischief and reckless endangerment stemming from the incident at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, a Port Authority of New York & New Jersey official said.

Slater's meltdown was preceded by an altercation with a passenger who struck Slater in the head with his carry-on bag as he removed it from an overhead bin. Slater demanded an apology. The passenger refused.

"A lot of expletives were exchanged," said the Port Authority official, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigation.

Passengers told investigators Slater got on the plane's public address system and dropped a few more F-bombs before saying he'd had enough of his job, the official said. He activated the emergency slide, grabbed two beers and bolted.

About 100 people were on the plane, which touched down safely at JFK about noon and was parked at the gate when the incident unfolded.

Slater ran to his car when he got off the emergency slide. He was arrested a short time later at his home in Queens' Belle Harbor neighborhood. He remained in custody last night, the authority official said.

"The whole thing's crazy," the authority official said.

Slater's MySpace page said he worked a dozen years as a flight attendant for several airlines before spending five years away from the profession in the past decade. Slater said he was "having a ball" back on the job. He listed as his interests on his Facebook profile outdoors activities, fashion, interior decorating, spirituality and recovery.

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