A FORMER Alaska Airlines pilot claimed he tried to shut down a plane’s engines mid-air because he was under the influence of magic mushrooms.
Joseph David Emerson has pleaded guilty to endangering more than 83 people after wreaking havoc in the cockpit of a California-bound jet in 2023.
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For 90 seconds, the two pilots of Horizon Air Flight 2059 wrestled with the off-duty pilot, who was sitting in the spare cockpit seat on the jet as it flew from Everett to San Francisco on October 22, 2023.
Emerson was hauled out of the cockpit, and the plane was diverted to Portland, landing safely with 84 people on board.
Before the terrifying ordeal, he told the pilots “I am not okay”, court documents revealed on Friday.
After being restrained, he warned flight attendants: “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad” and later tried to grab hold of the emergency exit handle as the plane descended, the docs show.
One flight attendant said they heard Emerson saying: “I messed everything up” and that he “tried to kill everybody”.
He later told cops that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms before the flight and had been battling depression.
In court on Friday, Emerson admitted he never intended to harm anyone but said: “I still made the decision to take psilocybin, and that led to my inability to determine that I was operating in reality for an extended period of time.”
“That doesn’t make this right,” he added. “What happened was wrong and should not have happened, and I bear the responsibility for that.”
Emerson pleaded guilty to a federal count and no-contest to the state’s 83 counts of endangering another person and one count of endangering an aircraft, CBS News reported.
A no-contest plea carries the same legal effect as a guilty plea.
He had previously pleaded not guilty to all charges and was released pending trial in December 2023.
He was sentenced to 50 days in jail – which he has already served – and five years of probation in state court on Friday.
Prosecutors may recommend a one-year prison term, though his lawyers are expected to argue for no further time.
He was also ordered to complete 664 hours of community service – eight hours for each person he endangered – and pay $60,659 (£44,907) in restitution, according to CBS News.
“What Joseph Emerson did was reckless, selfish, and criminal,” Multnomah County, Oregon, Deputy District Attorney Eric Pickard said.
“We should remember how close he came to ruining the lives of not just the 84 people aboard Flight 2059, but all of their family members and friends as well.”
Emerson said that, despite losing his career and facing a sentence, this was the “greatest gift” he ever received, as it forced him to confront his mental health issues and substance use.
“This difficult journey has made me a better father, a better husband, a better member of my community,” he said.
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