He endangered the lives of 83 people. A former American pilot went on trial this Monday for shutting down the engine of a plane in October 2023, while he was suffering from hallucinogenic mushrooms.
A Portland, United States District Court judge ruled that there would be no prison time, sentencing him only to three years of supervised release. “The pilots were not perfect. They were ordinary people,” explained Judge Amy Baggio when reading the verdict, Monday.
“You won’t come back”
“They are people like anyone else, and everyone needs help sometimes,” he added. Joseph Emerson, 44, was battling depression and alcohol and drug addiction at the time of the incident in October 2023, when his best friend died.
Two days after trying “magic mushrooms” for the first time, he boarded as a passenger, this time, on Alaska Air Flight 2059, connecting Everett, Washington, to San Francisco, California. The flight with 83 passengers was full, so he was given a cockpit jump seat, behind the pilot and co-pilot.
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In the middle of the flight, he began to feel “total panic and fear” even though he had not slept for almost 40 hours. “You’re not coming back. You have to get up. This is where I acted. I pulled the handle that was in front of me,” Emerson recalled.
Controlled in time by the flight attendant, the former pilot was arrested when the plane made an emergency landing in Portland (Oregon). Released after 46 days in prison in December 2023, with the obligation to undergo mental health services, he will certainly not return behind bars.
