Feds: Off-duty pilot may have taken shrooms before trying to bring down plane

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — New details emerged on Tuesday concerning an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut down a Horizon Air plane midflight on Sunday, suggesting the pilot was having a nervous breakdown and that psychedelic mushrooms may have played a role.

The federal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of Oregon arrives two days after Joseph David Emerson, 44, of Pleasant Hill, California, attempted to shut down the engines of Horizon Air flight 2059 while sitting in the cockpit jump seat as an authorized off-duty pilot for Alaska Airlines.

The incident reportedly occurred as the San Francisco-bound flight from Everett, Washington, flew south between Astoria and Portland, Oregon. The plane’s pilots subsequently redirected the flight to Portland International Airport, where Port of Portland police arrested Emerson on 83 counts of attempted murder, reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft.

The use of psychedelic mushrooms briefly appeared in the affidavit, though whether Emerson was high when he attempted to shut down the plane’s engine is unclear.

The federal affidavit details that after Emerson’s arrest, he told police that he believed he was having a “nervous breakdown,” that he had not slept in 40 hours and that he didn’t feel OK during the flight because “it seemed liked the pilots weren’t paying attention to what was going on.”

“Yah… I pulled both emergency shutoff handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up,” Emerson told police, according to the affidavit.

The affidavit then notes that Emerson denied taking any medication, that he had experienced depression for the last six months and that “the officer and Emerson talked about the use of psychedelic mushrooms and Emerson said it was his first time taking mushrooms.”

Shortly after Port of Portland police took Emerson into custody, he reportedly asked if he could waive his right to an attorney, stating, “I’m admitting to what I did. I’m not fighting any charges you want to bring against me, guys.”

Police interviews with the two pilots flying the aircraft indicate that Emerson, whom they had never met before, began the flight with casual conversation and with “zero indication of anything wrong.” The pilots then said that Emerson suddenly announced, “I’m not OK” before reaching up to pull the plane’s engine fire handles, which would have activated the aircraft’s fire suppression system to extinguish aircraft engine fires.

According to the affidavit, activating the fire suppression system would have shut off fuel supply to the engines, “turning the aircraft into a glider within seconds.” However, the pilots told police that they were able to prevent Emerson from pulling the handle fully after a brief struggle, and they then asked Emerson to leave the cockpit. The entire interaction is reported to have lasted 90 seconds.

Flight attendants from the plane gave police further details, saying they received a call from the cockpit that Emerson was “losing it” and needed to exit the cockpit. They told police Emerson walked “peacefully” toward the back of the plane, where he reportedly told one attendant that he was kicked out of the cockpit and “you need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.”

According to the affidavit, flight attendants secured Emerson in the back of the plane in a flight attendant seat with handcuffs and a seat harness. They reported observing him texting on his phone and making statements like “I messed everything up” and “he tried to kill everybody.” During the descent into Portland, a flight attendant prevented Emerson from grabbing the handle of an emergency exit door by placing her hands on his, engaging him in conversation so that he would not try to grab the handle again.

Alaska Airlines, which owns Horizon Air, first commented on the incident Monday, saying Emerson joined Alaska Air Group as a Horizon first officer in August 2001 before becoming an Alaska Airlines first officer in 2016 and an Alaska Airlines captain in 2019. The airline said Emerson had completed his mandated Federal Aviation Administration medical certification and “at no point were his certifications denied, suspended or revoked.”

On Tuesday, the airline issued a statement acknowledging it had read the federal complaint and is “deeply disturbed by what we have learned.”

“At no time during the check-in or boarding process did our gate agents or flight crew observe any signs of impairment that would have led them to prevent Emerson from flying on Flight 2059,” Alaska Airlines wrote.

The airline added that the U.S. Department of Transportation has a mandatory drug testing program for on-duty crew members for all airlines and that Alaska Air has a zero-tolerance policy for substance abuse, which “can include random testing before or after a flight, as well as reasonable suspicion testing of on-duty pilots and flight attendants.”

Alaska Airlines said it removed Emerson from service indefinitely and relieved him of all duties on Sunday. Emerson is currently being held in Multnomah County’s jail in downtown Portland.

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