Former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to disable engines mid-flight avoids prison time

A former Alaska Airlines pilot who attempted to disable the engines of a 2023 passenger flight while riding off duty in the cockpit after taking psychedelic mushrooms will not serve any prison time after he was released by a judge Monday. 

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio sentenced Joseph Emerson to credit for time served and supervised release for three years at a hearing in Portland, Oregon. Emerson pleaded guilty to the charges against him in September as part of a deal with state and federal prosecutors. Federal prosecutors had asked a judge to impose a one-year prison sentence. 

“Pilots are not perfect. They are human,” the judge said. “They are people and all people need help sometimes.”

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Before hearing his sentence, Emerson spoke, saying he regretted his actions. 

“I’m not a victim. I am here as a direct result of my actions,” he told the court. “I can tell you that this very tragic event has forced me to grow as an individual.”

Emerson was a passenger on the Oct. 22, 2023 Horizon Air flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco when he was subdued by the flight crew. 

He was sitting in an extra seat in the cockpit at the time aboard Flight 2059, which was carrying 84 people. The plane was eventually diverted to Portland, where it landed safely with more than 80 people on board.

At the time, Emerson, a California resident, told authorities that he was grieving a friend’s death and had taken psychedelic mushrooms around two days earlier. In addition, he said he had gone more than 40 hours without sleep. 

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Believing he was dreaming, he said he pulled the two red handles that would have activated the plane’s fire suppression system and cut off fuel to its engines.

“It was only through the heroic actions of the flight crew, who were able to physically restrain the defendant and restore normal operations of the aircraft, that no lives were lost that day,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo. 

Emerson was federally charged with interfering with a flight crew. In Oregon, he was charged with 83 counts of endangering another person and one of endangering an aircraft.

In state court, he received a 50-day jail sentence with credit for time served and five years’ probation. He was also sentenced to five years of probation, 664 hours of community service – eight hours for each person he endangered – and ordered to pay over $60,000 in restitution, nearly all of it to Alaska Air Group.

Fox News Digital’s Sophioa Compton as well as The Associated Press contributed to this report.