Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to cut off plane’s engine mid-flight and kill 83 people WALKS FREE from prison
The Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to cut off a plane’s engine mid-flight, almost killing the 83 people on board, has received a light jail sentence.
Joseph Emerson, 46, was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release in federal court on Monday. He previously pleaded guilty to the charge of interfering with a flight crew.
Emerson had attempted to shut down a commercial flight’s engines midflight in 2023 as an off duty pilot in the jump seat of the cockpit while enroute to San Francisco.
After entering a plea deal in September, the pilot dodged a potential maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
At the time, his lawyer Noah Horst said the pilot made a deal to take responsibility for his actions and in hopes he could avoid further time behind bars.
The father-of-two had taken psychedelic mushrooms days before the incident while on a trip with friends to remember his best friend Scott, a pilot who died years ago.
Despite not feeling himself, he accepted Flight 2059 from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco on Horizon Air.
Emerson revealed on Good Morning America, following his December 2023 release while awaiting trial, that he had been an alcoholic at the time of the flight. His release was subject to conditions that he refrain from taking any drugs or drinking alcohol and staying away from any aircraft.
Joseph Emerson is seen ahead of his sentencing on Monday
In an interview with Good Morning America , he called it the ‘biggest mistake’ and ‘worst 30 seconds’ of his life
Joseph Emerson, 46, was off-duty and sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit of a Horizon Air plane to San Francisco in 2023 when he tried to shut off the engines’ fuel supply. He is pictured in 2023
His attorneys argued that Emerson experienced hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, which caused the drugs he had taken to have lasting effects of days instead of hours.
During the flight, Emerson believed he was having a bad dream that he needed to wake up from.
‘That’s kind of where I flung off my headset, and I was fully convinced this isn’t real and I’m not going home,’ Emerson recounted.
‘And then, as the pilots didn’t react to my completely abnormal behavior in a way that I thought would be consistent with reality, that is when I was like, this isn’t real. I need to wake up.’
He claimed he was still experiencing the drug’s effects when he boarded the flight as an off-duty pilot and became convinced his surroundings weren’t real.
‘There was a feeling of being trapped, like, “Am I trapped in this airplane and now I’ll never go home?”‘ he recalled.
Emerson described the moment he reached for the engine shut-off controls, believing it would ‘wake him up’ from what he thought was a hallucination.
‘There are two red handles in front of my face,’ Emerson continued. ‘And thinking that I was going to wake up, thinking this is my way to get out of this non-real reality, I reached up and I grabbed them, and I pulled the levers.’
The father-of-two had taken psychedelic mushrooms days earlier while on a trip with friends to remember his best friend Scott, a pilot who died years ago
Emerson described the moment he reached for the engine shut-off controls, believing it would ‘wake him up’ from what he thought was a hallucination. Emerson is seen with his wife on Good Morning America
‘What I thought is, “This is going to wake me up,”‘ Emerson said. ‘I know what those levers do in a real airplane and I need to wake up from this. You know, it’s 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t.’
He said he was brought back to reality when the crew stopped him. He was subdued by the crew and the flight was diverted to Portland, Oregon.
Emerson was taken into custody at Portland International Airport. He later told CBS News that he had ‘no intention of crashing an actual airplane.’
‘I wanted to wake up. I was convinced I wasn’t going home to my wife and kids.’
