An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, riding the cockpit’s jump seat, attempted to shut off the engines mid-flight from Seattle Paine Field to San Francisco. The ensuing cockpit altercation, lasting around 90 seconds, are laid out in the criminal complaint against the jump seat rider. Here’s what happened during those crucial moments, and then once he was sent to the back of the plane.
Via Ross Feinstein, the criminal complaint has incredibly chilling details from the flight.
- The pilot riding the jump seat, Joseph David Emerson, told the captain and co-pilot that he was “not ok” and threw his headset across the cockpit. That’s when he reached up and grabbed the ride fire handles to activate the fire suppression system. This would have cut off fuel to the engines.
- Emerson wasn’t able to pull the handles “all the way and fully activate the engine shutoff” because the pilots wrestled him away. They engaged for about 30 seconds and then he “settled down.” The whole incident lasted around 90 seconds in the cockpit.
- The cockpit let the flight attendants know that Emerson was “losing it” and being ejected. Emerson walked to the back of the aircraft and reportedly told one of the cabin crew he’d been kicked off of the flight deck, and that “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.”
- They sat Emerson in a flight attendant jump seat at the rear of the aircraft and “placed cuffs on
EMERSON’s wrists.” As the plane descended into Portland, he turned towards an emergency exit door and “tried to grab the handle” but a flight attendant placed her hands on top of his to stop him and engaged him “in conversation in an attempt to distract him from trying to grab the emergency exit handle again.” Another crewmember reports him saying “I messed everything up” and that “he tried to kill everybody.”
Once on the ground, Emerson was arrested and police report that he said he was having a “nervous breakdown”, and that he hadn’t slept in 40 hours. He reports that he became depressed about 6 months ago.
In his explanation of the incident, he thought that the pilots “weren’t paying attention to what was going on.” He says he “pulled both emergency shut off handles because I thought I was dreaming and
I just wanna wake up.” Emerson talked to police “about the use of psychedelic mushrooms and EMERSON said it was his first-time taking mushrooms.”
Finally he admitted to everything, according to the affidavit, “I’m admitting to what I did. I’m not fighting any charges you want to bring against me, guys.”
It is a real challenge that many medical conditions a pilot may have aren’t going to be obvious in a medical exam, and that you want pilots with problems to be able to speak up. That’s doubly so when they’re mental problems or problems with alcohol and drugs. But speaking up and seeking help creates the risk of being sidelined, despite programs designed to encourage them to do so.
Put another way, you want pilots to be able to feel safe coming forward with their problems. But once they tell you they’re hallucinating and having thoughts about bringing down an aircraft, can you let them back in the cockpit? And keeping them from doing so communicates that they can’t safely come forward in the first place. All the programs designed to address this in the world still face this fundamental conundrum, and attempt to dial somewhat more towards pilot safety. But this isn’t an easy issue.
Ironic that he was arrested in Portland. Oregon recently legalized psychoactive mushrooms (in a supervised setting) and the New York Times had a recent article saying how great this was. I didn’t vote for it
That’s actually sad to read that a guy was so sleep deprived and depressed that he didn’t know if he was dreaming or awake. Probably drop the attempted murder charges.
I think what they need to do in these situations, to help encourage pilots to come forward, is to make sure that the program will not be guaranteed removal or even a likely removal, but would be centered on treatment and return to work.
It should be treated as any other physical disability. They should be put on medical leave, like short-term disability, and given treatment of whatever and however is necessary to return them to work. After their therapists and doctors have decided that they would be safe to return to work, they should be given a reintegration process while continuing to receive treatment to make sure that they stay safe and able to perform their job. And if long-term treatment is needed, then so be it.
Also, most importantly, the definition of what is necessary and how long it should take, should not be a hard defined amount and should be whatever the provider feels is realistically necessary for that individual, without pressure or two end treatment early. In the pilots, careers, and the responsibility of lives, all effort should be made to make sure that they are capable of returning to work and not being a danger to themselves or anyone else.
If these programs are set up in this way, it would encourage quicker treatment so that they can continue to perform. They should have no fear of getting treatment while an issue is still minor, and they are still capable of performing their job. That way, more pilots would be encouraged to speak up and not have to be placed on short-term disability leave while being treated, because they would receive help much earlier and in a way that is least likely to interrupt their ability to do their jobs.
I have a friend who’s an airline pilot and I asked him about this.
He said you need to arm the fire suppression system first. The handle wont come out unless you armed it. This likely gave the crew the time to wrestle him away.
Conjecture of course.
Let’s hope there’s no drama on the Horizon flight I’m on now!
I’m sure there will be more eloquent responses on here. But the way I see it a guy took some dope and tried to murder several dozen people. Who’s to say he won’t do it again with a car or something. The charges should stand. And in the future flight crews need to be told to handcuff peoples hands behind their backs. If he was grabbing for the handle, obviously they were cuffed in the front. And sit him between the two biggest nastiest looking people on the plane and if he attempts to stand up pull a Southwest 1763 on him.
All charges should stand, sad the guy is having issues, however he could have killed a lot of people, no excuse for that. Someone in his life, family or co-worker(s) knew he was having issues, that should have been reported, he has a highly skilled job where he is responsible for human life, just sad all the way around.
Wacko at the Wheel. Don’t Need That. Lock Him Up.
Sounds like a lot of excuses being made to placate the dude and release him eventually with little repercussions. I’ve taken magical mushrooms all my life without problem.
Isn’t there an ax in the cockpit? None of the “real” pilots thought to use that but subjected the cabin to this menace because he appeared “calm”. Something wrong with that too.
“At least these passengers weren’t flying JSX!” – American, probably
The potential of what could have happened was catastrophic but what actually happened was only moderately bad. It appears that Emerson gave some warning signs like throwing his headset across the cockpit and saying he wasn’t well.
He should be in prison. If murderers get 35 years, he should get 4-7 years.
This shows that drug use, even in states where it’s legal, is very bad. He did not have a mental health issue. He had a drug problem.
The pilot and copilot should have been allowed to evaluate him thoroughly before allowing him the jump seat in the cockpit. I suspect that this doesn’t happen for many reasons. Could having remote pilots or fully automated flying be any worse?
I left a comment that is awaiting moderation, for what is completely unknown. Maybe the algorithm isn’t working well.
The guy was also a left wing troll.
Just look at his social media presences.
@tluThe jump seater was on a trip and should have been taken to the hospital for evaluation and drug testing.
Prior to signing in each day, a pilot has to declare they are fit for duty. Similar to the FA’s being harassed for too many sick calls, the pilots are questioned if they call in fatigued or not fit for duty.
Being a pilot looks exciting but it can be very stressful. The jump seater should of self declared not fit for duty and gone on long term leave.
His family and neighbors will regret he did not block his address on the FAA database.
@tlu A pilot may not request the jump seat if they have had any alcohol or drugs. They are also not allowed to drink if they receive a jump seat pass but sit in the cabin.
There is a huge stigma with pilots declaring mental issues since they may not ever pass a FAA med exam afterwards.
This has nothing to do with the legality of drugs. This has to do with poor judgment on the part of the jump seat pilot. The exact same thing could’ve happened if the guy had downed 6 drinks in several airport bars just prior to boarding, a completely legal activity. Trying to tie this to drug legalization is arguing in bad faith.
Death Penalty and let’s move on… btw I love shrooms.
Mushy “ignorant comment”. “Dave” this is DIRECTLY related to the legalization of mushrooms. The side effects can be worse than any medical benefits. Hopefully this will stop the legalization in other states. The guy primarily has a MH issue that he tried to self medicate with a legal drug (OR) only.
If he took it upon himself to take psychedelics I would question his judgement to be able to pilot a plane again. However if mental illness is involved he should get treatment and be eligible to continue employment with his airline but not at the same capacity. Now I have to worry if my pilot has had enough sleep or is taking hallucinating drugs! Geez I’m already scared if flying as it is!!