For the first time, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to crash a plane with 84 people on board has been pictured – as stunned locals on his street described him as the perfect father, husband and neighbor.
Passengers said they were told that 44-year-old Joseph David Emerson suffered a “mental breakdown” before he allegedly tried to turn off the engines in mid-air from the jump seat on Sunday evening.
Emerson was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder for each person aboard the Embraer 175 plane that took off from Everett, in suburban Seattle, at 5:23 p.m. Sunday.
In addition to the murder charges, he faces an additional 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft, police documents show.
The plane had been headed to San Francisco but had to be diverted to Portland International Airport amid the struggle in the cockpit when crew members reportedly managed to “overwhelm” Emerson.
Joseph Emerson was charged Sunday with 83 counts of attempted murder per person aboard the Embraer 175 aircraft
Passengers aboard the Alaska Airlines flight said they were told the plane was being diverted due to a “medical emergency.” Aubrey Gavello, who was aboard the plane, said a flight attendant told passengers that Emerson had suffered a nervous breakdown
For the first time, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot accused of trying to crash a plane with 84 people on board has been pictured – as stunned locals on his street described him as the perfect father, husband and neighbor. (Pictured: Joseph Emerson with wife Sarah Stretch)
Passengers said they were told that 44-year-old Emerson (pictured with his sons) suffered a “mental breakdown” before he allegedly tried to disable the plane in mid-air by attempting to disable the fire suppression system on Sunday evening to trigger the emergency seat
Emerson is a devoted family man and neighbors were shocked and saddened by the news that he had allegedly tried to crash a passenger plane carrying dozens of people
Emerson was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder for each person aboard the Embraer 175 plane that took off from Everett, in suburban Seattle, at 5:23 p.m. Sunday. (Pictured: the same type of aircraft as the one involved in Sunday’s incident)
He did not fly the plane, but sat in the jump seat, which is reserved for other pilots and crew members in addition to the main controls in the cockpit.
Emerson’s neighbors told that he lives with his wife, Sarah Stretch, and two young sons in a close-knit apartment complex in Pleasant Hill, California, in the rolling hills east of San Francisco.
No one answered the door to his $1.2 million, four-bedroom home on Monday. A cheerful sign outside the door reads: “Free flying lessons.” “Inquire Inside,” another is “Trick or Treat” as the family-oriented neighborhood prepares for Halloween.
Neighbors described Emerson as a happy, playful father, a kind man who they knew of no problems. He played basketball with his children on a court he built for them in the backyard and invited neighbors to parties.
They also had positive things to say about their wife, describing her as a loving mother and a swimming coach who taught physical education at a local community college.
“It’s just really shocking, disturbing news,” said neighbor Karen Yee. “They are excellent neighbors. He is a fantastic father. He plays with the children all the time. He is very friendly. He’s just a great guy.
“He has a great understanding of other people,” she said. “We have a son with special needs and he’s very good to him.” “We just couldn’t imagine him doing anything to hurt anyone.”
“We find it very difficult to believe that he would do something like this intentionally,” Yee added tearfully. “I can’t imagine he would do anything that would harm anyone.”
Emerson was led off the plane in handcuffs after passengers were told the plane would have to make an unscheduled landing due to a medical emergency
Emerson’s neighbors told that he lives with his wife, Sarah Stretch, and two young sons in a close-knit apartment complex in Pleasant Hill, California, in the rolling hills east of San Francisco
Emerson’s family home on a tight-knit apartment complex in Pleasant Hill, California, in the rolling hills east of San Francisco
“It’s just really shocking, disturbing news,” said neighbor Karen Yee (right, with her husband Ed Yee). “They are excellent neighbors. He is a fantastic father. He plays with the children all the time. He is very friendly. He’s just a great guy’
Lou Rossi (pictured), an elderly neighbor, described Emerson as a kind man who recently helped him find items at a local Safeway grocery store and allowed him to pick up a few logs from his home to make a workbench to build for his own son
She wanted to reach out to the family to see if there was anything they could do to help, noting, “It just hurts my heart.”
Her husband, Ed Yee, echoed her sentiments. “He never said anything negative about his job or anything like that,” he said.
Lou Rossi, an elderly neighbor, described Emerson as a kind man who recently helped him find items at a local Safeway grocery store and allowed him to pick up a few logs from his house to make a workbench for his own son to build.
“I’ve been watching the news all the time and I see things happening in neighborhoods where people say they could never believe someone would do something like that,” Rossi said.
“All I can do is vouch for his character,” he continued. “I helped him do things around his house.” He does a lot with his children. I can’t say a single word that is at all derogatory towards him.
“All I can tell you is that he’s a really nice man and his wife Sarah is a really nice woman, and they’ve never, even remotely, made me think anything negative about them.”
Rossi, a retired U.S. Air Force soldier, said he sometimes casually talked to Emerson about airplanes and engines.
“He seemed to enjoy his work,” he said. “He trained a lot.”
“I could always tell when he was gone because his car was gone,” he continued. “His car runs on nitrogen, so it had a completely different sound.”
A cheerful sign on Emerson’s front door reads: “Free Flying Lessons.” “Inquire Inside,” another is “Trick or Treat” as the family-oriented neighborhood prepares for Halloween
Lou Rossi, an elderly neighbor, described Emerson (pictured) as a kind man who recently helped him find items at a local Safeway grocery store and had him pick up a few logs from his house to make a workbench for his to build your own son
The plane involved in Sunday’s incident was headed to San Francisco but had to be diverted to Portland International Airport during the cockpit struggle when crew members reportedly managed to “overwhelm” Emerson.
“It’s just really shocking, disturbing news,” said neighbor Karen Yee. “They are excellent neighbors. He is a fantastic father. He plays with the children all the time. He is very friendly. He’s just a great guy
Aubrey Gavello, who was aboard the plane, said a flight attendant told passengers that Emerson had suffered a nervous breakdown.
“After we landed and the gentleman was taken away, the flight attendant went back on the speaker and simply said, ‘He had a nervous breakdown.’ “We had to get him off the plane immediately,” she told ABC.
She said passengers were not immediately made aware of what Alaska Airlines called a “safety threat” until a flight attendant told them over a loudspeaker that “there was an emergency situation and the aircraft needed to land immediately.”
Gavello said they were later told it was a “medical emergency” and she heard a flight attendant tell the suspect, “We’ll be fine, it’s OK, we’ll get you off the plane.”
Another passenger, Alex Wood, said the pilot announced that “there was a disturbance in the cockpit.”
“It was very professional, the transaction was very calm and we didn’t really know what was going on until we landed,” he told ABC.
When the plane landed, police went to the tail of the plane and escorted a handcuffed man off the plane, according to Wood.
He noted that the suspect was “wearing a lanyard and a sweater” and “looked like an airline employee.”
Neighbors described Emerson as a happy family man who didn’t seem to have any problems
Live audio from air traffic appears to show a pilot describing the person believed to have “overwhelmed” Emerson after the incident, suggesting a struggle occurred
Alaska Airlines said the crew “secured the aircraft without incident.”
“On October 22, Horizon Air-operated Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 from Everett, WA (PAE) to San Francisco, CA (SFO) reported a credible security threat associated with an authorized occupant in the jump seat on the flight deck,” Alaska said Airlines.
“We are grateful for the Horizon flight crew’s professional handling of the situation and appreciate our guests’ calm and patience during this event.”
Live audio from air traffic appears to show a pilot describing the person believed to have “overwhelmed” Emerson after the incident, suggesting a struggle occurred.
“We got the guy who tried to shut off the engines out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any problems in the back at the moment. I think he’s under control,” a pilot said, according to air traffic controllers’ audio recorded by Live ATC.
“We want law enforcement once we’re on the ground and parked.”
Emerson was arrested by Port of Portland officers and is described in his booking record as a 6-foot-1, 44-year-old, bald white male with blue eyes and weighing 210 pounds.