Judge to decide sentence for pilot who attempted to disable plane, forcing emergency Portland landing

A federal judge Monday will decide on a sentence for the former Alaska Airlines pilot convicted of trying to cut off a plane’s engines while riding in the cockpit’s jump seat during an Everett, Wash., flight bound for San Francisco.

The 2023 flight made an emergency landing in Portland.

The federal prosecutor will argue for a one-year prison sentence, while Joseph David Emerson’s defense lawyer says probation is sufficient, according to their sentencing memos. Emerson was sentenced to probation in Oregon state court in September.

Emerson “flagrantly betrayed” the trust his employer put in him as a highly-trained and well-compensated airline captain when he boarded the Horizon Air passenger plane on Oct. 22, 2023, in a drug-induced psychosis after ingesting psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier during a “boy’s weekend,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey A. Barrow wrote.

“While experiencing an unanticipated reaction to the illicit hallucinogenic, he compounded his poor judgment by deliberately placing himself in the cockpit of a commercial airline,” he wrote. “His poor choices during that extended weekend seriously endangered his own life and the lives of the 83 passengers and crew of Flight #2059. He must be held accountable for those choices.”

Emerson’s lawyer Ethan Levi counters that his client has suffered enough and was “already adequately punished.”

Emerson’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio in federal court in Portland.

Emerson was sentenced in state court to five years of probation for the exact same crime after pleading no contest to 83 counts of recklessly endangering another and one count of first-degree endangering an aircraft. A Multnomah County judge also ordered him to complete 664 hours of community service, or eight hours for each victim, and pay nearly $60,000 in restitution.

The Federal Aviation Administration revoked his pilot and medical certificates. Alaska Airlines fired him. His brokerage bank refused to continue to work with him and he had to liquidate his retirement accounts, his lawyer said. Emerson is now working part-time as a pressure washer in the early morning hours, going to school to become a substance abuse counselor and is now a stay-at-home father.

He completed in-patient substance abuse treatment, has maintained his sobriety for two years, paid $59,608.25 in restitution and is sharing his lessons with others. He’s also likely on the government’s “no-fly list,” but the Transportation Safety Administration will not confirm that, Levi wrote.

In federal court, Emerson, 46, pleaded guilty in September to interfering with flight crew members, a Class C felony.

A federal pre-sentence officer separately has recommended six months of home detention for Emerson, which his lawyer also argues is not needed.

“Besides imposing more administrative costs and requirements, home detention will offer no other benefits to society or Mr. Emerson than a sentence of probation,” Levi’s sentencing memo said. Emerson’s daily life now consists of work, family, school, recovery, community service and counseling, which he should be allowed to pursue, he said.

Two days before Emerson boarded the San Francisco-bound Horizon Air Flight 2059 for an off-duty flight home, he ate psilocybin mushrooms during a remembrance gathering for his best friend and fellow airline pilot who had died six years earlier from an untreated heart problem, according to his lawyer. He had never taken the hallucinogen before and when he boarded the plane he hadn’t slept in days, Levi said.

When he ate the mushrooms, Emerson was not scheduled to pilot a commercial aircraft for at least six days and believed the effects of the psilocybin would wear off within eight hours.

“He was wrong. His reaction to the psilocybin was unusual and unexpected,” Levi wrote in his memo.

Emerson became “completely detached from reality” for several days, and believed he was “either trapped in a dream or already dead.” He suffered what his lawyer called, “Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder.” He thought his family was in danger and desperately wanted to get home, according to Levi.

While in the cockpit jump seat behind the pilots, he felt like he would never get home and “would endlessly fly,” and texted his friends, “I’m freaking out in the JS (jump seat),” according to his lawyer’s memo.

When he listened to a voice-to-text response that said, “Just do your breathing exercises,” he removed his earbud, threw it across the cockpit and told the crew, “I’m not okay.” When one crew member asked what was wrong, Emerson said, “I want to be home,” Levi wrote.

Emerson then pulled the red-handled fire suppression levers above him to cut off fuel to both engines, according to court records.

The crew quickly responded. One pilot grabbed Emerson’s wrist but Emerson “initially resisted,” and there was a short physical struggle that lasted about 90 seconds before Emerson was directed to leave the cockpit, Barrow wrote in his sentencing memo.

The other pilot declared an inflight emergency and turned the plane’s autopilot off, rerouting the flight, which was halfway between Astoria and Portland, to land at Portland International Airport, according to Barrow.

The red T-shaped handles that Joseph D. Emerson reached up to pull. If both red T-handles are fully engaged, a valve in the wing closes to shut off fuel to both engines, according to a federal prosecutor.U.S. Attorney’s Office

Emerson was unable to pull the levers all the way. If he had done so, it would have shut down the hydraulics and fuel to the engines, turning the plane into a glider within seconds, Barrow said. The lead pilot was heard “breathing heavily” on a cockpit audio recording after wrestling with Emerson, the prosecutor wrote.

“Both pilots heroically carried out their responsibilities to secure the safety of the aircraft, its passengers and crew,” Barrow wrote. “The gravity of the incident is palpable.”

Emerson went to the back of the cabin, and put his hands in a carafe of hot coffee in the galley “in an effort to wake up,” his lawyer said. He told the flight attendants to “tuff-cuff” him because he wasn’t sure what was real and then reached for the emergency exit but an attendant intervened and grabbed his hand back, according to Levi.

Once arrested after the plane landed, Emerson told officers that “mentally, I am in crisis,” adding, “I just wanna wake up,” according to his lawyer. While in a Port of Portland police holding cell, he was seen banging his head on the cell’s walls, Levi wrote.

He remained in custody for 46 days. While in jail, he began journaling and realized that he was an alcoholic and had been for years, Levi wrote.

Emerson and his wife have since started a nonprofit called Clear Skies Ahead, and Emergson has used the publicity about his case to highlight the problem of pilots not addressing their mental health needs in order to protect their jobs and has advocated for congressional reforms and FAA policy changes.

“Though terrifying, his disorganized and dangerous conduct in the cockpit lasted

for seconds and when confronted by the pilots, he stopped,” Levi wrote. “He was compliant. He was cooperative, and he is mortified by what he has done.”

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