A former Alaska Airlines pilot is speaking out after allegedly trying to shut off a plane’s engines during a flight last year.
In an interview that aired on Friday, Aug. 23, on ABC’s Good Morning America, Joseph Emerson recalled the Oct. 22, 2023 incident: Emerson, who was off-duty at the time, was sitting in the cockpit’s jump seat during a flight from Seattle to San Francisco and allegedly attempted to shut off the plane’s engines by pulling the engine fire handles. (The flight was operated by Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines.)
Emerson was restrained and the two pilots on duty were able to take control of the plane, which was rerouted to Portland, where it landed safely. He had allegedly taken psychedelic mushrooms about 48 hours prior, he later told investigators, according to county and federal charging documents previously reviewed.
Emerson explained in the interview that he had trouble deciphering what reality was while on the drug, which he says he took after a weekend of remembering his best friend Scott, who died a few years back.
“What I thought is, ‘This is going to wake me up,” Emerson said, per ABC. “I know what those levers do in a real airplane and I need to wake up from this. You know, it’s 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t.”
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, taking psychedelic mushrooms causes people to experience distorted sights and sounds, as well as intense emotions.
“There was a feeling of being trapped, like, ‘Am I trapped in this airplane and now I’ll never go home?’” Emerson added.
When the plane landed, Emerson was taken into custody by Port of Portland police. He allegedly told them that he hadn’t slept in 40 hours and was going through a mental health crisis, according to an affidavit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Alaska Airlines.
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He also allegedly told investigators at the time that it was his first time taking psychedelic mushrooms, according to a federal complaint, adding that six months prior to the incident, he had become depressed.
After the incident, in which no injuries were reported, Emerson was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and one felony count of endangering an aircraft, as previously reported. He was also charged with endangering a flight crew by federal prosecutors but it’s unclear if he still faces that charge.
The attempted murder charges, however, have since been reduced to reckless endangerment, ABC reports. Emerson, who was released from custody last December, has reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charges. It’s unclear if he will go to trial.
“What I hope through the judicial processes is that the entirety of not just 30 seconds of the event, but the entirety of my experience is accounted for as society judges me on what happened,” Emerson told ABC. “And I will accept what the debt that society says I owe.”
