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Last October, I wrote about an Alaska Airlines flight that was diverted after a pilot sitting in the cockpit’s jump seat tried to crash the plane. The pilot attempted to shut off the plane’s engines midflight. He was thankfully unsuccessful and now more details have been released. He was high on psychedelic mushrooms and his first trip did not go well. Now, the pilot is out expressing his regret to the media before his trial begins.
Alaska Airlines flight AS2059 between Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) diverted on Monday after another Alaska Airlines pilot identified as Joseph Emerson tried to crash the plane via its the fire suppression system used to extinguish aircraft engine fires. The Horizon Air Embraer E175 landed safely at Portland International Airport (PDX), but not before the terrifying incident unfolded.
The Department of Justice has brought criminal charges against Joseph Emerson. A probable cause affidavit sheds some additional light on the incident. The agent interviewed the pilots and flight attendants and the affidavit included some crazy details including:
- Emerson attempted to pull the engine shutoff handles while telling the other pilots, “I’m not okay.”
- The pilots flying the plane had to physically restrain Emerson before getting him out of the cockpit and sending him into the cabin.
- Emerson told a flight attendant, “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.” The flight attendant did in the rear galley jump seat. During descent, Emerson tried to open an emergency exit and the flight attendant intervened while he said things like “[I’ve] messed everything up” and he acknowledged that he “tried to kill everybody” while apparently trying to text with his phone.
- Emerson later told police he was having a nervous breakdown, hadn’t slept for 40 hours, and that this was his first time taking psychedelic mushrooms.
FIRST ON @GMA: Former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut down engines in-flight shares his story.
“It's 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t.”@GioBenitezhttps://t.co/TThz75SE5q pic.twitter.com/mlGSYe6RpI
— Good Morning America (@GMA) August 23, 2024
Emerson and his wife appeared on Good Morning America, where the pilot showed remorse and said that he hopes he can be judged on more than the 30 seconds of the incident. Matthew from Live and Let’s Fly says that he “believe[s] Emerson has forfeited his right to be a commercial airline pilot.” I agree with that and think that he is genuinely sorry for his actions.
Anthony’s Take: This pilot is about to get his date in court. While he appears remorseful, his actions could have cost 83 people their lives. We’ll see how this plays out in court.
(Image Credits: Alexander Volkov and ViktorCap)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
