An Alaska Airlines pilot who twice tried to take down a crowded passenger flight during a magic mushroom fuel meltdown has refused to reveal information about his mental health because he fears he will be suspended, a report said.
Joseph Emerson, 44, was depressed before the strange episode Oct. 22 on a flight to San Francisco but told his wife he couldn’t afford to come clean to the airline, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“I was like, ‘Maybe you need to talk to somebody,'” Emerson’s wife, Sarah Stretch, told the outlet.
“And then he said to me, ‘Sarah, I can’t go out of work,'” she recalled her husband telling her. “’We have to pay the mortgage. If I’m going to do that, I’m going to have to go through all these other hoops… and we can’t afford to do that.’”
The veteran pilot had to be grounded on a flight between Everett, Washington, and San Francisco after trying to shut down the engine and lunge to open the emergency exit mid-flight, authorities said.
He later told police that he had taken psychedelic mushrooms before the flight.
Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson told his wife, Sarah Stretch, that he was afraid to report his depression to the airline because he feared he would be punished. On Oct. 22 he crashed in flight and tried to take the plane down twice. Joseph Emerson/Facebook Joseph Emerson, an Alaska Airlines pilot, was grounded on an Oct. 22 flight after he tried to shut down the plane’s engine and crashed into the emergency exit while in the air. He told his wife he was depressed but was afraid to tell his boss. Courtesy of Aubrey Gavello
Emerson was sitting in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight on Horizons Air as a passenger — a courtesy given to off-duty pilots when they travel with their airline.
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses and regulates the conduct of pilots in the US, allows them to self-report any mental or physical health problems – but pulls them from the cockpit when they do.
The pilots are then required to undergo thorough checks before they are allowed to fly again, which experts say serves as a deterrent for them to come clean about any issues they may be facing.
“It is not an easy process for them to return to the cockpit,” Dr. Brent Blue, senior aviation medical examiner who worked with the pilot told Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“They have to go through this evaluation by psychiatrists and neuropsychologists to do that,” he said. “These are pilots who are basically responsible for saying, ‘I’m not willing to fly because of my grief or whatever.’
Joseph Emerson, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after officials say he tried to bring down a plane twice during a crazy flight on October 22. He told his wife he was suffering from depression. POOL An Alaskan Airlines flight from Everett, Washington to San Francisco on October 22 had to make an unscheduled landing in Oregon after off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson ran off the runway and tried to cut the engine and open the door in mid-air.Getty Images
Pilots can apply for short-term, and after six months, long-term disability — but pay during the leave is usually around 50% of their salary, although the rate varies by airline.
Stretch said her husband had struggled emotionally since the death of a close friend — who served as best man at the couple’s wedding — more than five years ago, and was returning from a trip with a mutual friend when he fell into strange behavior on a flight. .
According to a 2016 study by the National Library of Medicine, 12.6% of commercial airline pilots reported some level of depression, and more than 4% reported suicidal thoughts.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
