A former Alaska Airlines pilot, accused of attempting to shut off a plane’s engines while under the influence of mushrooms, has finally addressed the incident.
Joseph D. Emerson, 44, was in the cockpit on a flight from Washington state to San Francisco. He was reportedly engaging in casual conversation with the pilots when he suddenly said: “I’m not OK.”
Emerson had allegedly taken psychedelic mushrooms two days before the flight. During the flight, he attempted to pull the fire extinguisher handles, which are designed to cut off fuel to the engines in case of a fire.
Fortunately, one of the pilots managed to restrain Emerson before he agreed to exit the cockpit.
The plane made an emergency landing in Oregon, where Emerson was subsequently arrested by police.
According to an affidavit, Emerson denied taking any medications for mental health. However, he did discuss psychedelic mushrooms and mentioned having taken them prior to the incident.
The affidavit states: “The officer and Emerson talked about the use of psychedelic mushrooms and Emerson said it was his first-time taking mushrooms.”
Emerson has now spoken out about the incident, expressing his regret.
“I did something unfathomable, something I have to take responsibility for and something I regret,” he told 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 also admitted to trying to open the plane’s emergency exit door after being 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 coping with depression since the death of his best friend Scott, then texted his wife, admitting 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 is currently facing 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of endangering an aircraft in the first degree.