He was released from custody in December and is awaiting trial.
In a recent interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Joseph Emerson, a 44-year-old off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, broke his silence about the shocking incident that occurred on October 22, 2023. Mr Emerson, who was seated in the cockpit’s jump seat, allegedly attempted to shut down the plane’s engines by activating the fire suppression system while the aircraft was airborne. He attributed his actions to a mental breakdown, stating that he had been struggling with depression and had ingested psychedelic mushrooms 48 hours before the incident.
In the latest interview, Mr Emerson opened up about the emotional triggers that led him to consume the psychedelic mushrooms, revealing that he had spent the previous weekend reminiscing about his best friend, Scott, who died a few years back. He began to lose touch with reality and began thinking he was “trapped” on an “imaginary” plane.
”What I thought was, ‘This is going to wake me up. 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,” Mr Emerson said, per ABC.
“There was a feeling of being trapped, like, ‘Am I trapped in this aeroplane and now I’ll never go home?” he added.
When the plane landed, Emerson was taken into custody by Port of Portland police and charged with 83 counts of attempted murder. Moments after he was removed from that cockpit, he sent his wife Sarah a text message.
“I made a big mistake,” the message read.
He spent the next 45 days in jail before he was granted bond. The murder charges against him now have been dropped, but the former pilot still faces over 80 state and federal charges. He was released from custody in December and is awaiting trial.
“At the end of the day, I accept responsibility for the choices that I made. They’re my choices. 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. And I will accept what the debt that society says I owe,” Mr Emerson said.
The former pilot has now started a nonprofit organization called Clear Skies Ahead, which aims to provide vital support to pilots struggling with mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
