An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who has been accused of attempted murder for trying to shut down the engines in-flight while in the cockpit of a regional jet has proffered a number of defenses including that his body had an unexpected reaction to psychedelic mushrooms and that he had not slept in 40 hours.
Alaska Airlines Pilot Joseph David Emerson Took Mushrooms Before Flight, Was Sleepless And Depressed
When Joseph David Emerson was arrested after allegedly trying to shut down the engines of an Embraer 175 mid-flight, he was interviewed by authorities seeking to understand what could have driven the answer. Some of those details have now surfaced:
- Emerson joined Horizon Air in 2001 and pivoted to Virgin America in 2012 before becoming an Alaska Airlines pilots in 2016 when it acquired Virgin America
- In 2019 he became a captain on Alaska Airlines
- Emerson claimed he had a mental breakdown triggered by a number of factors
- He had not slept in 40 hours
- He had battled depression for six months
- Before the flight, he ingested psychedelic mushrooms for the first time, which may be the most likely contributing factor for his actions onboard
- Emerson also claimed that he felt that the pilots “weren’t paying attention to what was going on”
- As to why he deployed the engine fire suppression system, he explained, “I pulled both emergency shut off handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up”
- When he attempted to shut off the engines, he engaged in a brief struggle with pilots before leaving the cockpit
- One pilot grabbed his wrists and tried to restrain him while the other pilot through the aircraft
- 25-30 seconds later, Emerson stopped struggling
- In the passenger cabin, he was restrained as the aircraft quickly diverted to Portland, Oregon (PDX)
- Upon leaving the cockpit, Emerson purportedly told a flight attendant, “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad”
- After being restrained in the rear of the aircraft, he attempted to grab the handle of an emergency exit door, but a flight attendant stop him
- Once the aircraft was on the ground, the flight attendnat told everyone to remain seated, explaining, “He had a mental breakdown. We needed to get him off the plane immediately”
- He waived his right to counsel, telling investigators, “I’m admitting to what I did: I’m not fighting any charges you want to bring against me”
In addition to the 167 criminal counts Emerson faces in Multnomah County, Oregon Circuit Court, he now faces a federal charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants. He was arraigned on those charges yesterday afternoon.
Emerson has a clean record both in terms of criminality and concerning his pilots license.
You can review the criminal complaint here.
CONCLUSION
This is a tragic case. I believe Emerson must be held accountable for his actions. He will never fly a commercial aircraft again. But I appreciate that he did not try to run and hide from his actions. Yes, it was the magic mushrooms that likely triggered this. But rather than try to deflect blame, he candidly admitted to what he did and is now willing to accept the consequences for them. I can respect them, even while condemning his actions. Dealing with depression can be difficult and a mental breakdown seems very obvious here. Hopefully Emerson will now get the help he needs to overcome this life-altering hour onboard a Horizon Air flight.
image: Alaksa Airlines
So, at what point does this become Alaska’s problem? Letting a guy on mushrooms sit in the flight deck, and he was probably going to fly one of their planes that day. I’m now more interested in knowing his flight schedule before and after this event.
I do think Alaska has a responsibility to vent the mental health of their employees… I do worry about another Germanwings Flight 9525 incident.
Not buying the timeline on the Mushrooms. Something here is completely off. Mushrooms taken for depression are dosed at levels that rarely cause something like this. Further, if it does, it does not happen 40 hours after. Most effects wear off after 4-5 hours.
Either he is lying about taking mushrooms so as to hide something deeper rooted in psychosis OR he is lying about taking them for depression when he was in fact using them recreationally and perhaps just a few hours before his flight.
Lastly, psilocybin is not a first choice use. All other medications would have had to be exhausted and shown not to work. Unless he was self administering without a Doctor’s supervision.
I agree. The mushroom story may not be completely accurate.
The flight data recorders should also be examined.
Assuming he was telling the truth on the timeline, any reasonable dosage of shroom recreational or not SHOULDNT have had that type of impact 48 hours later.
The combination of 40 hours of sleep deprivation, depression and shroom use the day of / night before AND some type of prescription medication… sure.
I tend to think this was more of an illegal drug reaction rather than a mental health issue.
It’s good to read that there was not a violent struggle. It sounds like one pilot grabbed Emerson’s arms but no violent fight to the death.
I also believe his statements about not wanting counsel reflects poor judgment and possibly from his drug use. He is certainly guilty of something but not guilty of everything that he might be charged with, keeping in mind that he did not know the charges before they were filed nor were there even prosecutors assigned when he said those statements.
This is true interference with a crew, not some power hungry flight attendant barking orders to a passenger.
You are 100% correct. NEVER open your mouth without a lawyer. N.E.V.E.R.
Or……he was just a murderous a-hole.
This incident only outlines the fact that commercial airline pilots cannot and should not be trusted. We should explore technologies that will reduce our dependence on them.
Matthew… key fact left out of your story, he claimed it was 48 hours or two days before he had the shrooms. They are “most likely” gone from the body by then, just like 99.99% of people aren’t DRUNK two days later after having their last drink. Changing the line from “Before the flight” to “48 hours before the flight” paints a different picture.
You speculate that the shrooms was the key factor (reductionist thinking). Why isn’t it the 40 hours of not sleeping. Why isn’t it the depression. Why isn’t it all three. Why speculate at all
As said before the guy was a hardcore lefty as we see from his Twitter history.
People who subscribe to that emotional ideology should have their mental health questioned.
The real mental health nut jobs are those that view the entire world and their entire lives through political tribalism .. as if that’s the only thing that matters.
He may be physically ill with something that had been previously missed Something is off with hallucinogenic part of the story. Also photos show a changed appearance. Just a guess.
His life choices, whether grabbing a handle or mushrooms, just cost him and his family possibly $3 million or more and a rough life for his family. His career is over.
The reported fact that he threw the headset, could be subdued easily by the pilots, walked to the back of the plane on his own when directed, and said the flight attendant should restrain him points to this being some type of psychosis. If this was deliberate, he would have fought tooth and nail for the fire handles or to cut the fuel switch to the engines. We shouldn’t blame people for bad reactions to medications or drugs because these reactions may only happen under specific circumstances that a person has no knowledge of. Sleep depravation is a form of torture. We could do it when 22 in college to the tune of 60 hours awake but past a certain age it can really affect the brain.
The attempted murder charge is ridiculous and shows why government is evil. No criminal intent makes it a ridiculous charge. The bigger ridiculousness is the government mandating double secured cockpit doors. This situation shows why that is a bad idea. Cockpit doors should not be allowed to be locked outside of takeoff and landing. Electronic locks should be disabled at a certain altitude. If we can’t trust people in general, we certainly shouldn’t trust two people locked in a cockpit. Given that passengers on aircraft are hyper-vigilant, we are safer with two or 3 people not being able to lock themselves in a cockpit. All the mental health protocols are useless because pilots will not self report if it means they can’t fly. Depression also can be masked. With White pilots there is little risk of any political agenda that involves crashing, however, Muslims and Asians are more likely to crash a plane as a part of a political or religious agenda. We’ve seen this with the U.S.S. Cole, 9/11, and possibly MH370. White Pilots having depression and wanting to do a eurowings or a Muslim/Asian pilot wanting to use the plane for militant or political purposes are both concerns.
Most Muslims are Caucasian except Indonesia and Malaysia. Black people do the least air piracy but rob and murder more.
Too bad, his choice. BTW, if he into mushrooms, we have got a ton of rain here and my backyard is full of mushrooms. He is more than welcome to come here and harvest them.
Along with a health physical, a mental health assessment of all to-be pilots and at regular intervals in their career should be mandatory, including their social life, habits, and who they are outside of their flying career. The Department of Homeland Security does this on you when you apply for Global Entry by the way. Sounds intrusive but their private lives need to be known at the risk of being responsible for hundreds of people.
I think the mushrooms is just a made-up excuse. Sleep deprivation alone can cause delusions of suicide and homicide.
The man is demonically possessed!
“I appreciate that he did not try to run and hide from his actions.”
Let’s see how long that holds up.
I’ll bet that we’re going to see plenty of him hiding from his actions before all is said and done.