US prosecutors on Tuesday charged an off-duty pilot accused of trying to shut off the engines of an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday over the Pacific Northwest.
Joseph David Emerson (44), of Pleasant Hill, California, an Alaska Airlines pilot, was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants.
He told an officer that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms for the first time and been depressed for the past six months and believed he was having a nervous breakdown.
"I messed everything up," Emerson said, according to the criminal complaint, adding that he "tried to kill everybody.”
Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 was operated by Alaska Air Group's regional subsidiary Horizon Air, the carrier said.
Prosecutors said that after the cockpit incident Emerson, in wrist restraints, tried to grab the handle of an emergency exit during the flight's descent but was stopped by a flight attendant.
Emerson was off-duty at the time and riding as a validated "jump seat" passenger in the cockpit of the plane – a routine mode of transport for commercial airline pilots hitching flights back home or to their next assignment, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Emerson is set to make his first appearance at 2.05pm local time (10.05pm Irish time) in Multnomah County court, according to a spokesperson for the local prosecutor in Portland, Oregon, where formal charges were expected to be filed.
He was booked into jail on 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of endangering an aircraft.
The FAA told US airlines in a notice seen by Reuters that the off-duty pilot had sought to disable the engines of the Embraer 175 by attempting to activate the engines' fire-suppression system while the plane was at cruise altitude.
The action occurred shortly after Emerson said, “I’m not okay." A pilot grabbed Emerson's wrist while the other declared an inflight emergency and then one pilot physically engaged Emerson before he left the cockpit.
Emerson joined Alaska Air Group as a Horizon first officer in August 2001 and later a pilot, Alaska Airlines said, adding that "at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked." Aviators are expected to self-report any mental health conditions.
Adam Silverthorne, president of California-based NRI Flying Club, said the incident was incongruous with the kindhearted, methodical family man he knew Emerson to be several years ago when Emerson was a club member and provided flight instruction. A club newsletter mentioned that Emerson was at NRI in 2016.
The FAA told airlines in a separate notice on Monday that the incident "is not connected in any way, shape or form to current world events" but said it is "always good practice to maintain vigilance."
