NEW YORK, Nov 15 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan Chase's (JPM) decision to dump its hefty stake in low-cost airline JetBlue Airways' (JBLU) has JetBlue seeing red. JetBlue's skyrocketing share price plunged nearly 17 percent last month after a lock-up on its stock expired on October 9, following the company's initial public offering in April. In a rare public display of pique between a young corporation and an investment bank, a JetBlue executive blamed the private equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase on Friday for sending the company's share price reeling by dumping as much of its stock as possible to rake in profits. "They behaved as though they'd never been involved in an IPO in their lives," JetBlue Chief Financial Officer John Owen told a group of analysts at the Salomon Smith Barney Transportation Conference in Florida. J.P. Morgan was one of JetBlue's biggest initial investors. A spokeswoman for the financial services giant said the firm had no comment on the issue. But Sal Morreale, who tracks IPOs for Cantor Fitzgerald, was not surprised that J.P. Morgan chose to lock in profits. The dropping values of market assets have burned scores of investors this year, and black ink is scarce. "This stock has been a big winner in a lousy sector." Morreale said. "Maybe in a different environment, where we have a better stock market, things are different. But you can't blame people for taking profits." JetBlue last week posted a third-quarter profit, one of the few U.S. airlines to do so. Venture capitalists and other early-stage investors in JetBlue, including J.P. Morgan's New Air Investors LLC, George Soros' Quantum Industrial Partners LDC, and BancBoston Ventures Inc., held nearly 33 million shares that were freed for sale by the lock-up expiration. Those firms snagged more than half of JetBlue's stock in late 1998 for $5.27 per share. High-profile financier Soros still holds his entire investment in the company, even though the company's shares have traded as high as $55.15, Owen said. But J.P. Morgan, which held about an 11 percent stake, or 4.7 million JetBlue shares, as of April 17, dumped more than half of that stock the day the lock-up expired for $33 to $34 per share, according regulatory filings. Owen blamed J.P. Morgan's drastic actions as part of the reason the company's share price dropped so sharply on such heavy volume. John Fitzgibbon, the editor of IPO newsletter 123jump.com, didn't blame J.P. Morgan for dumping its shares to pull in some profits. "They're venture capitalists, so what are they doing? They're cashing in their chips," he said. J.P. Morgan now owns only 500,000 JetBlue shares, Owen said. "We are not happy at all with the way they behaved," Owen said. "Frankly, we can't wait until they get rid of the last 500,000 (shares). We're tired of them messing with our stock price." About 7.5 million shares of JetBlue's stock traded hands on the day the lock-up period expired, more than 12 times its average volume to that point. The airline's share price plunged from $35.77 at the close of trade on October 8 to a low two days later of $29.75. JetBlue shares traded 95 cents lower, down about 2.5 percent, to close at $37.85 on the Nasdaq on Friday. It has ranged from a year high of $55.15 to a year low of $29.75.