The out-of-control airline pilot who tried to take down an Alaskan Airlines flight in the air told police he had taken a magic mushroom before the flight, it emerged Tuesday.
Joseph Emerson, 44, an off-duty commercial airline pilot, went off the runway while sitting in the cockpit jump seat of a flight between Everett, Washington, and San Francisco on Sunday – trying to cut fuel to the engine before he had to be restrained by the crew .
Despite being restrained, Emerson attempted to open the emergency door on the Alaskan flight, operated by Horizon Air, as the pilot frantically guided the craft to land.
When later interviewed by police he said he had a “nervous breakdown” after not sleeping for 40 hours and taking psychedelic mushrooms for the first time.
“I don’t think it’s okay. The pilot didn’t seem to care what was happening. They didn’t… it didn’t seem right,” Emerson told police, according to an affidavit obtained by The Post.
“You have to pinch me now or it’s going to be bad,” he told a flight attendant after being removed from the cockpit, the affidavit said.
“I messed everything up,” Emerson told the crew, adding that “he was trying to kill everybody.”
Although the affidavit did not say whether Emerson was under the influence of the mushrooms while on the plane, he later added: “I pulled both emergency flap handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanted to wake up.”
Joseph Emerson, 44, a commercial airline pilot, was charged with attempted murder and reckless endangerment. Joseph Emerson/Facebook A gardener works outside the Emerson home in Pleasant Hill, California.David G. McIntyre
After the plane, which was carrying 83 people, made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, the married father of two was arrested and booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center.
“I admitted what I did,” Emerson told police in Portland, the affidavit said. “I don’t fight any of the charges you want to bring against me, guys.”
On Tuesday the feds added their own charges and hit him with one count of harassing flight crew members and attendants.
He is scheduled to answer further state charges in court on Tuesday.
Joseph Emerson, 44, had to be detained while boarding an Alaskan Airlines flight on Sunday when he twice tried to get off the plane. The plane was diverted to Oregon, where the off-duty pilot was hit with 83 felony charges in the freak incident. Courtesy of Aubrey Gavello
Emerson told investigators he became depressed six months earlier.
Neighbors of the pilot in Pleasant Hill, California, where Emerson lived with his wife and children for about five years, described the incident as uncharacteristic of a suburban dad.
“When I heard about the incident, my initial response was [that] he’s having psychological problems because it’s totally not normal for him,” next-door neighbor Karen Yee told The Post.
“They are a great family and I feel bad for them,” Yee said. “I can’t imagine him doing what he did. The whole neighborhood was shocked because he was loved by everyone.”
Emerson’s neighbors called the incident inappropriate for him.David G. McIntyre Decorative signs at Emerson’s home.David G. McIntyre
Two of the plane’s pilots told federal investigators that they were having a “casual conversation” with Emerson when he reached for the red handle that activated the emergency fire suppression system, which would have cut off the fuel supply that feeds the jet engine.
The pilot later told police they had “zero indication” that Emerson would fly off the handle.
After a 30-second struggle, they kicked him out of the cockpit, locked the door, and told the flight attendant that he had “lost it.”
He was placed in wrist restraints near the back of the plane and then had to be restrained again as he lunged for the emergency door.
Although all the passengers on the plane were safe, they were shaken by the strange incident.
“The flight attendant came back on the loudspeaker and said, clearly and simply, ‘He’s mentally disturbed,'” passenger Aubrey Gavello told ABC News this week. “’We need to get him off the plane immediately.’”
The incident also played out in a dramatic air traffic control conversation.
Off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson tried to cut fuel on an Alaskan Airlines flight Sunday and then crashed through an emergency door mid-air before he was eventually detained. He faces 83 felony charges in the incident. AP Federal prosecutors say he twice tried to derail an Alaskan Airlines Washington-bound flight to California on Sunday.KGO-TV
“We have a guy trying to shut down the engine out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any problems in the back right now,” a pilot told air traffic control, according to audio obtained by LiveATC .net.
“We want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and park,” he said.
Emerson rode in the cockpit’s jump seat as a courtesy usually given to pilots not on flight duty.
Additional reporting by Marjorie Hernandez
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
