(Reuters) -An off-duty pilot accused of trying to shut off the engines of an Alaska Airlines jet during a flight over the Pacific Northwest said he was having a nervous breakdown and had previously ingested psychedelic mushrooms, court documents released on Tuesday show.
Joseph David Emerson, 44, of Pleasant Hill, California, an Alaska Airlines pilot who was riding on Sunday in a jump seat in the cockpit during the flight, was charged in a federal criminal complaint on Tuesday with one count of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. Emerson was separately charged in Oregon state court with 83 counts of attempted murder and a single count of endangering an aircraft.
After his arrest, he told an officer that he had previously taken psychedelic – or “magic” – mushrooms for the first time and had been depressed for the past six months, according to an FBI affidavit. He said he believed he was having a nervous breakdown and had not slept for 40 hours.
State court documents say Emerson had taken “magic mushrooms” about 48 hours before the incident. Alaska Airlines said Tuesday that at no time during the check-in or boarding process did employees observe any signs of impairment that would have led them to prevent Emerson from flying.
“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.
After the attempt to disable the engines, 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, prosecutors said. He had told crew: “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.”
Emerson was 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 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Emerson is set to make his first appearance at 2:05 p.m. PT (2105 GMT) 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 state counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of endangering an aircraft.
In a notice seen by Reuters, the FAA told U.S. airlines 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 OK.” A pilot grabbed Emerson’s wrist while the other declared an in-flight emergency and then one pilot physically engaged Emerson before he left the cockpit.
“I pulled both emergency shutoff handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up,” Emerson said, according to the complaint.
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.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Allison Lampert; Additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis, Mark Porter and Jamie Freed)
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