An Alaska Airlines pilot who was off-duty but sitting in a jump seat in the cockpit on a commercial flight has been charged with attempted murder after he attempted to shut down the plane’s engines mid-flight.
Horizon Air’s Embraer E-175 was en route from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco when the incident occurred Sunday, parent company Alaska Airlines said in a statement. The plane, which was carrying 80 passengers, was diverted to Portland, Oregon, where it landed safely.
According to Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air pilots reported “a credible safety threat associated with an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who was sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit.”
“The occupant of the jump seat attempted to interfere with the operation of the engines to no avail,” the company said. “Horizon’s captain and co-pilot responded quickly, engine power was not lost, and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.”
A level 4 threat
Alaska Airlines did not identify the person, but rather a named man Joseph Emerson, 44, was charged Monday by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department in Portland with 83 counts of attempted murder, endangering another person and endangering an aircraft.
Live ATC, a website that archives conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers, released an audio recording of the Horizon Air pilot describing the incident. “We got the guy who tried to turn off the engines out of the cockpit,” he said. “And it looks like he won’t cause any problems at the back now.”
“I think it’s under control. Apart from that, the police must be there as soon as we land,” he added, describing the incident as a level 4 threat attempting to endanger flight safety. Investigations into the matter are ongoing. Many airlines allow off-duty pilots to sit in the cockpit jump seat, a seat directly behind the pilots.