New cockpit audio reveals chaos during terrifying mid-air scare in 2023
Newly-released cockpit audio captured the moment an Alaska Airlines pilot tried to shut off the engines of a flight on the way to San Francisco more than two years ago.
The routine flight in October 2023 suddenly turned manic. The audio from inside the cockpit captured several expletives being blurted out amid the confusion.
Someone is then heard saying that they need to make an emergency landing.
Horizon Flight 2059 was headed from Everett, Washington to the Bay Area when off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson in handcuffs, who was riding in the jumpset, reached for the fire suppression handles - a move that could have cut fuel to both engines of the aircraft.
The flight crew stopped him and diverted straight to Portland.
Once he was in handcuffs on the tarmac, video from inside the police vehicle showed Emerson telling an officer that he was "having a nervous breakdown."
"I don't really know why," he added.
"So were you trying to kill yourself?" an officer asked Emerson.
He responds: "I was trying to wake up... I didn't feel like it's real."
"So when did you finally notice that this was real," the officer asked Emerson.
After a pause, he responds: "When I saw the look on people's faces when I came, when you guys brought me out here."
Investigators say Emerseon had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days prior to the incident and hadn't slept in 48 hours.
"There was a feeling of being trapped, like am I trapped in this airplane? This is not real, I need to wake up," he said in an interview after the incident.
Last month, a federal judge sentenced Emerson to time served. The judge also called the case a "cautionary tale."
Emerson has paid $60,000 in restitution and has also apologized to the crew that was on board that day and thanked them for saving the flight.
Meanwhile, Emerson is working to become a substance abuse counselor and goes to daily recovery meetings. He and his wife have started a non-profit for pilots struggling with mental health issues.
