Off-duty pilot Joseph Emerson, who was charged with trying to cut off a plane’s engine, said in his first public interview since his arrest that he thought he was in hell before the flight, saying he had made a huge mistake. admitted.
Emerson is a pilot for Alaska Airlines. Last month, he boarded a plane while off-duty and attempted to shut off the engine mid-flight while sitting in a spare seat in the cockpit.
The other pilots overpowered Emerson and made an emergency landing in Portland. He was taken into custody and charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, one for each of his passengers and crew members. Federal prosecutors charged him with interfering with flight crew. The New York Times reported.
According to Emerson, he had no intention of harming anyone. He had been hallucinating since ingesting psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier. Emerson ingested the mushrooms during a weekend trip with his friends to mourn the death of his best friend, the Times reported.
“I remember a lot of traumatic things at the time, like, ‘Am I dead? Is this hell?'” Emerson told the Times. “I’m reliving that trauma.”
Emerson left his vacation and headed to the airport to return home. He was confused and struggled to understand what was happening around him, he said. Emerson yelled for help from the pilot on duty, then grabbed the steering wheel in a panic and stopped the engine.
She said she asked the flight attendant to restrain her because she was worried about what would happen next.
“If this is true, and all of this is true, then I have done something immeasurable to me,” Emerson told law enforcement officers who arrived in Portland.
“I am horrified that these actions put myself and others at risk,” he told the Times from the county jail in Portland. “That crew faced a situation with no written manual, checklist, or procedure. And they did an exemplary job keeping me and the rest of the people on that plane safe. Ta.”
Emerson said he wants to be as transparent as possible about what happened.
Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight filed suit against the airline, alleging that the airline did not properly follow its policies and not allow Mr. Emerson to sit in the cockpit, even though Mr. Emerson admitted he was unwell. filed a lawsuit.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.