An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot said he took “magic mushrooms” about 48 hours before authorities said he tried to shut down a plane’s engines mid-flight, according to court documents filed Tuesday . Joseph Emerson told investigators after Sunday’s scare aboard a flight to San Francisco that he thought he was dreaming and wanted to wake up, an Oregon prosecutor said in an affidavit.
Emerson, 44, pleaded not guilty in state court Tuesday afternoon to 83 counts of attempted murder and one count of endangering an aircraft. In addition to those crimes, he pleaded not guilty to 83 counts of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.
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Earlier Tuesday, federal prosecutors said Emerson also tried to grab the handle of an emergency exit while flight attendants held him down. He was charged in federal court with one count of obstruction of flight crew members and flight attendants, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon said in a statement Tuesday.
A flight attendant told responding officers that Emerson said he was “trying to kill everyone,” according to an FBI agent’s affidavit that was part of a criminal complaint filed Tuesday.
“I screwed everything up,” Emerson said, according to court documents.
At the scene, Emerson told officers he thought he was having a “nervous breakdown” and that he hadn’t slept in 40 hours, the FBI agent’s affidavit said.
According to another affidavit from a Multnomah County deputy district attorney, Emerson told an officer that he had been struggling with depression for six years and that a friend had recently died. He told another officer that he had taken “magic mushrooms” about 48 hours before the incident on Sunday.
“I don’t understand why you’re showing me so much kindness, I’m obviously exhausted,” Emerson told the officer, according to the affidavit.
The officer noted that Emerson did not appear to be “outwardly under the influence of intoxicants,” according to the affidavit.
Alaska Airlines said Tuesday it was “deeply disturbed” by Tuesday’s revelations and Emerson appeared unaffected before takeoff.
“At no time during the check-in or boarding process did our gate agents or flight crew encounter any signs of impairment that would have resulted in them preventing Emerson from flying,” the airline said in a statement.
Emerson was sitting in the jump seat in the cockpit of Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 from Everett, Washington, on Sunday when he allegedly tried to activate the plane’s emergency fire suppression system, which would have cut off fuel to the engines, prosecutors said.
Before the incident, he and the pilots of the flight had chatted casually in the cockpit, one of the pilots told investigators, according to the FBI agent’s affidavit. Emerson then threw his headset over the cockpit and said, “I’m not feeling well,” the documents say.
Emerson then grabbed and pulled on the two red handles that activated the suppression system, one of the pilots said, according to the documents. The other pilot told investigators that Emerson was unable to pull the handles all the way down because the pilots were wrestling with him.
“I pulled both emergency stop handles because I thought I was dreaming and just wanted to wake up,” Emerson told officers at the scene, according to documents.
According to the documents, Emerson and the pilots struggled in the cockpit for about 25 seconds before Emerson calmed down. The entire incident lasted about 90 seconds before Emerson was asked to exit the cockpit, with the pilots securing the door behind him.
The cockpit called flight attendants and told them that Emerson was “losing his temper,” according to the documents. A flight attendant escorted Emerson to the back of the plane, Alaska said. Emerson walked there peacefully and told a flight attendant that he had “just been thrown off the flight deck,” according to the documents.
“You have to handcuff me right now or this will get bad,” Emerson told the flight attendant, according to the documents.
Flight attendants handcuffed Emerson and placed him in the back of the plane. As the plane was en route to Portland airport, Emerson tried to grab the handle of an emergency exit, prosecutors said. A flight attendant put her hands on his to stop him.
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Alex Sundby