Former Alaska Airlines pilot who allegedly tried to shut off plane’s engines while high on psychedelic mushrooms speaks out
Topics: Travel, US News, Drugs, Mental Health
Lucy Devine
Featured Image Credit: ABC 6/Facebook/Joseph Emerson
Topics: Travel, US News, Drugs, Mental Health
A former Alaska Airlines pilot who allegedly tried to shut off the plane's engines while 'high on mushrooms' has spoken out about the incident for the first time.
Joseph D. Emerson, 44, had been sitting in the cockpit on a flight from Washington state to San Francisco, reportedly making small talk with the pilots in charge before he suddenly said: "I'm not OK."
After reportedly taking psychedelic mushrooms two days prior, Emerson attempted to remove the fire extinguisher handles of the plane, which are meant to cut fuel to the engines in case of a fire.
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Luckily, one of the pilots managed to restrain Emerson before he agreed to leave the cockpit.
The plane went on to emergency land in Oregon, where Emerson was arrested and taken away by police.
According to an affidavit, Emerson denied taking any medications for his mental health, but he did discuss psychedelic mushrooms and indicated he had taken them before the incident unfolded on the flight.
The affidavit explains: “The officer and Emerson talked about the use of psychedelic mushrooms and Emerson said it was his first-time taking mushrooms."
Now, Emerson has spoken about the incident for the first time, explaining he regrets what happened.
"I did something unfathomable, something I have to take responsibility for and something I regret," he said to ABC.
"There was a feeling of being trapped, like, 'Am I trapped in this airplane?'
“There were two red handles in front of my face... I reached up and pulled the levers... What I thought is, ‘This is going to wake me up, I know what they do in a real airplane and I need to wake up from this'. It's 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can't."
Emerson added that he also tried to open the plane's emergency exit door once he had been locked out of the cockpit.
"I put my hand on the lever, she put her hand on mine and around this period I said 'I don't understand what's real I need you to tough cuff me,'" he said.
Emerson - who had been dealing with depression since his best friend Scott past away - then text his wife saying he had 'made a big mistake'.
“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," he added.
“And I will accept what the debt that society says I owe."
Emerson faces 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of endangering aircraft in first degree.