An Alaska Airlines ex pilot is speaking out after trying to shut down the plane's engines mid-flight. The pilot was high on mushrooms during the incident/
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Speaking with Good Morning America, Joseph Emerson opened up about the 2023 incident that made the headlines. To make matters worse, Emerson wasn't even on duty at the time. However, he still ended up in the cockpit's jump seat. He attempted to shutdown the plane's engines in a scary moment. The ex pilot pulled the engine's fire handles.
The flight was operated by Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines. It was headed from Seattle to San Francisco. The two pilots on duty managed to restrain Emerson and take back control of the plane. The plane ended up landing safely in Portland. Prior to his flight, the ex pilot said he took psychedelic mushrooms. He took them about 48 hours prior. As such, he had difficulty detailing the difference between reality and fantasy.
"What I thought is, 'This is going to wake me up," Emerson also 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."
Ex Pilot Arrested
Emerson said he felt trapped on the plane and thought he would never go home.
"There was a feeling of being trapped, like, 'Am I trapped in this airplane and now I'll never go home?'" Emerson added.
In a back and forth with investigators, the ex pilot confessed he was going through a mental health crisis. He said that he hadn't slept in 40 hours and was also going through a bout of depression. Authorities charged him with 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, and also one felony count of endangering an aircraft.
Since then, authorities reduced the charges on attempted murder to reckless endangerment. While he pled not guilty, it's unclear at this time if things will proceed to trial.
"What I hope through the judicial processes is that the entirety of not just 30 seconds of the event, but the entirety of my experience is accounted for as society judges me on what happened," Emerson told ABC. "And I will accept what the debt that society says I owe."
