Passengers aboard an Alaska Airlines flight to San Francisco had no idea the man sitting quietly in the jumpseat was about to trigger a mid-air emergency. Now, new cockpit audio and police video reveal just how close the flight came to catastrophe — and the mental unraveling of the Bay Area pilot at the center of it all.
Joseph Emerson, a former Alaska Airlines pilot from the East Bay, was off-duty when he tried to pull the fire suppression handles — an action that could have cut power to both engines — on a Horizon Air flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco in October 2023.
In newly released audio, Emerson can be heard telling the cockpit crew, “I’m not okay. I gotta get home.” Seconds later, the pilots radioed air traffic control in a calm but urgent tone: “Horizon 2095, we got a jump seater, just tried to shut our engines off, we need to go direct to Portland, now.”
Thanks to the crew’s quick thinking, the plane landed safely at Portland International Airport. Emerson was pulled from the cockpit, handcuffed, and taken into custody.
In dash-cam footage from a police cruiser, the shaken pilot confessed, “I’m having a nervous breakdown. I thought I was dreaming, man. I just want to wake up… this is very real.”
Investigators later learned Emerson had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days before the flight and hadn’t slept in 48 hours. He later told the court he never sought help, fearing it would destroy his career.
A federal judge sentenced Emerson to time served and three years of supervised release last month, calling the case “a cautionary tale” about both mental health and hallucinogens.
Since then, Emerson has launched a nonprofit called Clear Skies Ahead to support pilots struggling with mental health issues — a mission he says is his new flight path.
Source: ABC7 News / Alaska Airlines / Court Records
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