Shock over off-duty Bay Area pilot accused of trying to shut off plane’s engines in flight

“No sign he was off. Nothing,” said neighbor Karen Yee.

There was nothing about Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph David Emerson that suggested a simmering cauldron of rage or despair that would drive a seemingly successful and happy Pleasant Hill family man to allegedly jeopardize the lives of dozens of innocent people on a full flight from Seattle to San Francisco on Sunday.

However, authorities stated that this is exactly what occurred.

According to the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon, Emerson, 44, was being held Monday on 83 counts of attempted murder and reckless endangerment, as well as one count of endangering an aircraft. The plane landed safely after Emerson was removed from the cockpit.

Emerson was off-duty on Sunday and riding in an extra “jump seat” in the cockpit of Horizon Air flight 2059, an Embraer 175 that took off from Everett, Washington, at 5:23 p.m. bound for San Francisco. According to Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air’s parent company, Emerson “unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines,” but the pilot and copilot “quickly responded, engine power was not lost, and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.” The plane was diverted to Portland International Airport.

Emerson’s tidy gray home with white trim, whimsically decorated for Halloween with tombstones, ghosts, skeletons, giant spiders, and a “Beware” sign, remained unanswered Monday. However, stunned neighbors said they saw nothing wrong with him.

“There was no indication he was leaving. “Nothing,” said Karen Yee, a neighbor.

The terrifying in-flight situation resurrects concerns about airline cockpit security and flight crew screenings raised by previous tragedies, ranging from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijackings to incidents of mentally ill pilots seizing control of planes and crashing them. According to experts, this latest incident is likely to cast doubt on an off-duty pilot travel privilege that American pilots long desired and fought for.

Yee stated that she and Emerson have known each other for many years and that she lives next door to the pilot, his wife, and two elementary-aged children. Her grandchildren, she claims, play with Emerson’s children.

“We are devastated by the news,” said Yee. “He’s everything you’d want in a good neighbor.” We see him on walks and over the fence. Fantastic individual. Wonderful family. We truly send them our love and support.”

In an exchange captured on video by LiveATC.net, one of the pilots calmly informed air traffic controllers that “we’ve got the guy who tried to shut down the engines out of the cockpit.”

“He doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back right now, and I think he’s subdued,” the captain said. “Other than that, we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”

In an alert to airlines, the FAA stated that the jump-seat passenger attempted to disable the engines by activating the engine fire-suppression system.

According to Ross “Rusty” Aimer, president of Aero Consulting Experts and a retired United Airlines pilot, “it would have been disastrous had he managed to do what he intended to do.”

Aimer believes that shutting down both engines at once would have given the pilots a chance to maintain control of the aircraft while attempting to restart them. If they had been at normal cruising altitude, they could have glided the plane for about 20 minutes and 100 miles to a safe landing spot. However, if only one engine were suddenly turned off, the aircraft would have lurched to one side due to thrust imbalance, and the pilots would have struggled to regain control, according to him.

According to Aimer, it would be difficult to imagine an innocent explanation for Emerson’s alleged behavior.

“Any pilot knows what those handles are for, even if they don’t fly that particular airplane,” Aimer went on to say. “You know what those are for, and you don’t touch them, you don’t get anywhere close.”

The incident alarmed Bay Area passengers on board. Jessica Verrilli, of San Francisco, said in a social media post on X that a flight attendant appeared “visibly worried” as she announced that “we need to emergency land.”

“The plane is fine, but we’re having a problem,” Verrilli overheard the flight attendant say. She recalled hearing the crew explain that there was a “disturbance in the cockpit” and a “mental breakdown” and that police then escorted a handcuffed man off the plane who offered no resistance.

“I’m kind of just in shock,” Verrilli wrote on Facebook, thanking the airline crew for “an incredible job.”

The airline did not name Emerson in its statement, but it did say, “we are grateful for the professional handling of the situation by the Horizon flight crew and appreciate our guests’ calm and patience throughout this event.”

The incident is being investigated by law enforcement authorities, including the FBI and the Port of Portland Police Department, according to Alaska Airlines. The FAA deferred to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s statement that the “FAA supports law enforcement in their response and will be focused on any future safety considerations that emerge from investigations.”

According to FAA records, Emerson is a licensed airline pilot. The Multnomah County sheriff’s office, district attorney’s office, and public defender’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Emerson’s behalf. Attempts by this newspaper to contact his family were futile.

According to Aimer, US pilots frequently fly as passengers on planes they aren’t piloting to and from work. Because the flights are frequently overbooked, an extra cockpit seat is available.

“Most pilots don’t live where they work,” said Aimer. “That’s why this jump seat privilege is so important.”

Jump-seat travel is only available to pilots in the United States, and while it is a professional courtesy, the pilot has the final say on whether to allow another pilot in the cockpit or on the plane, according to Aimer. Off-duty pilots riding in the jump seat have their identification, license, and medical records checked, and they are expected not to speak unless spoken to — the exception, he said, is if they have a safety concern at low altitude.

“The jump seat belongs to the captain of any flight,” Aimer said, adding that he is concerned the privilege is under threat now because, while pilots are screened for mental health, no screening is perfect. “This was a tremendous benefit to all airline pilots.” It only takes one insane person to destroy something good.”

There have been a few crashes attributed to crew members, including one in 2015 when the co-pilot of a Germanwings jet crashed in the French Alps. And Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan University of Denver, recalled a 1994 incident in which a FedEx pilot facing dismissal attempted to crash the plane but was apprehended, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison.

However, Adam Silverthorne, president of the NRI Flying Club in Concord, where Emerson was a member and a flying instructor about five years ago, described Emerson as a “dot the i’s and cross the t’s sort of pilot” who was “very safety-conscious,” hardly the profile of a troubled plane crasher.

“It’s the last person in the world you’d expect to be associated with some kind of arrest in aviation,” Mr. Silverthorne said. “I was taken aback. In every way, I’ve known him to be a good citizen.”