Off-duty pilot accused of trying to stop engines took mushrooms, police say
An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to shut down the engines of a San Francisco-bound flight on Sunday told police he thought he was dreaming and was trying to wake up when he grabbed for an emergency system in the plane’s cockpit, according to details released Tuesday in support of a new federal charge.
The off-duty pilot, Joseph David Emerson, told police he had taken psychedelic mushrooms about 48 hours before the incident, according to an affidavit. Emerson said he had struggled with depression and that a friend had recently died, according to Oregon state court documents. He said he was in a mental crisis and hadn’t slept in 40 hours.
Airline officials said Emerson, 44, was riding in the cockpit’s jump seat when he tried to activate the fire-suppression system on the aircraft, which could have prevented fuel from flowing to the engines. He faced a new federal charge Tuesday of interference with flight crew members and attendants, plus dozens of charges filed a day earlier in Oregon.
Emerson pleaded not guilty Tuesday to numerous state counts of attempted murder during a court appearance in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland. He remained in custody and no bail was set.
According to a federal affidavit, the altercation between Emerson and the pilots played out in about 1 1/2 minutes.
One pilot told police nothing initially was amiss with Emerson as they chatted about aircraft. Then halfway between Astoria, Ore., and Portland, Emerson said, “I’m not okay,” according to the affidavit.
The other pilot saw Emerson grab red handles for the fire-suppression system. The first pilot grabbed Emerson’s wrist, according to the affidavit, and they “physically engaged” for about 30 seconds before Emerson calmed down. The pilot then asked Emerson to leave the cockpit.
The second pilot told police that if Emerson had been able to pull the handles all the way down, the result would have been to turn “the aircraft into a glider within seconds,” the affidavit said.
The pilots told air traffic controllers the threat level on the flight had escalated to a four, the highest on an Federal Aviation Administration scale. But as they approached Portland, a pilot said the threat was reduced with Emerson in the back of the plane.
“It seems like he settled down … after one moment of going a little bit overboard,” the pilot said, according to recordings archived by LiveATC.net.
After Emerson left the flight deck, he walked peacefully to the back of the plane, according to the affidavit.
“You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad,” Emerson allegedly told a flight attendant.
As the plane was descending, he allegedly tried to grab an emergency exit handle before a flight attendant stopped him. Another flight attendant heard Emerson say, “he tried to kill everybody,” according to the court filing.
Emerson agreed to be interviewed by police, according to the affidavit, telling officers: “I’m admitting to what I did. I’m not fighting any charges you want to bring against me, guys.”
He allegedly told officers he felt as though he was having a “nervous breakdown.”
“I pulled both emergency shut off handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up,” Emerson told police, according to the federal affidavit.
Asked by police if he had been trying to kill himself during the incident, Emerson did not answer, according to the documents. Police said he admitted putting “84 lives at risk.”
“I don’t understand why you’re showing me so much kindness, I’m obviously [messed] up,” he told one officer.
An attorney for Emerson listed in court documents didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
The flight was diverted to Portland International Airport, where Emerson was detained. He is facing 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft.
Alaska Airlines said Emerson had completed medical certifications required by the FAA throughout his career, adding that no certifications have been denied, suspended or revoked.
“Our crew responded without hesitation to a difficult and highly unusual situation, and we are incredibly proud and grateful for their skillful actions,” the airline said in a statement.
Joe Muckle, president of the union representing Horizon Air pilots, pointed to the poise of his members during critical moments Sunday.
Muckle, of Teamsters Local 1224, said the pilots’ “ability to make split-second decisions, perform under pressure, stay calm, and de-escalate the situation helped to protect the passengers and crew.” In a statement, he cited the courage and professionalism of flight attendants who worked with pilots and “prevented the situation from escalating.”
The FBI is participating in the probe, along with the Port of Portland Police Department and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
According to FAA records, Emerson received his most recent medical exam in September. The FAA requires pilots to undergo a medical examination every six months to five years, depending on their age and type of flying they perform.
Flight 2059 departed Paine Field, in Everett, Wash., bound for San Francisco with 80 passengers and four crew members aboard. Emerson was in the jump seat, an additional seat in the cockpit generally reserved for designated personnel from the FAA, National Transportation Safety Board or crew members.
The flight was operated by Horizon Air, an Alaska Airlines regional subsidiary.
According to an audio recording posted on LiveATC.net, a pilot told air traffic controllers: “We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing issues in the back right now. I think he is subdued.”
Emerson, of Pleasant Hill, Calif., about 30 miles east of San Francisco, joined Alaska Airlines as a first officer in 2001, the carrier said. In June 2012, he left to join Virgin America as a pilot. After Virgin America was acquired by Alaska in 2016, Emerson rejoined the airline, becoming a captain in 2019.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the FAA will look into any future safety considerations that might emerge from investigations into the incident.
Robert Sumwalt, a former airline pilot and former chair of the NTSB, said he hoped the incident wouldn’t lead authorities to ban rides in jump seats.
“There have been thousands of flights and the system operates very well all the time,” said Sumwalt, now executive director of the Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “I hope this does not lead to an overreaction.”
Drug and alcohol usage and mental illness have proved to be key factors in dangerous outbursts in the air, a Washington Post review of federal cases showed. Managing airborne threats is more complex in the confines of a plane, where routine calls to law enforcement to manage mental health crises are impossible to make.
The lawyer for a man who lunged at an emergency door and smashed a flight attendant’s head during a 2020 Hawaiian Airlines flight said he “was in an altered state of mind when he tried to exit a commercial aircraft midflight,” according to federal court documents.
After a raging first-class passenger fought to open the airplane door on a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle in 2017, his consulting doctor said he had experienced a psychotic episode after eating cannabis gummies, according to federal court filings.
The prospect of major mental health problems affecting pilots, or intruding into the carefully controlled environment inside cockpits, underscores broader challenges in regulating flight safety. The FAA counts on pilots to self-report conditions such as depression and post-traumatic stress, physicians who conduct the exams have told The Post.
After the incident involving Emerson, pilots with Alaska Airlines competitor American Airlines received a message from the carrier’s senior manager of flight security, advising of the incident and urging pilots to “please maintain vigilance and heightened situational awareness.”