Off-duty pilot accused of trying to shut off plane's engines mid-flight said he was having a nervous breakdown, federal complaint shows | CNN
Off-duty pilot accused of trying to shut off plane's engines mid-flight said he was having a nervous breakdown, federal complaint shows | CNN
The off-duty pilot accused of trying to shut down the engines of an Alaska Airlines plane midflight on Sunday said he was having a nervous breakdown and told the flight crew he needed to be subdued, according to a federal complaint.
Well at least he was off duty when he decided to do it. I hope he never flies a commercial plane again.
I just had a beer and took a nap when I had my nervous break down.
well that guy may or may not have taken some mushrooms before the flight, the wording is kinda strange here. it seems more that he had really bad day, rather than being some intentional psycho-killer, but i doubt he will ever pilot anything again.
Pilot 1 advised that the incident occurred approximately halfway between Astoria, Oregon and Portland, Oregon while the aircraft headed south. While sitting in the cockpit jump seat, EMERSON, said “I’m not okay.” Pilot 2 turned and observed EMERSON reaching up and grabbing the red fire handles and pulling them down. Pilot 1 explained to the interviewing police officer that by pulling the red fire handles, this effectively activated the aircraft fire suppression system used to extinguish aircraft engine fires. Pilot 1 added that the activation of the fire suppression system would shut off the fuel supply to the engines. Pilot 1 grabbed EMERSON’s wrist while Pilot 2 declared an inflight emergency. Pilot 1 said EMERSON initially resisted him, and they physically engaged for a duration he estimated to be 25-30 seconds, and then EMERSON quickly settled down. Pilot 1 asked EMERSON to leave the cockpit and EMERSON exited the cockpit.
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Responding officers interviewed several flight attendants. During the flight, the flight attendants received a call from the cockpit that EMERSON was “losing it” and he needed to get out of the cockpit. EMERSON was observed peacefully walking to the back of the aircraft. EMERSON told one flight attendant that he “just got kicked out of the flight deck.”** EMERSON said to the flight attendant, “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.”** The flight attendants sat EMERSON in a flight attendant seat in the back of the aircraft and placed cuffs on EMERSON’s wrists. During the flight’s decent, EMERSON turned towards an emergency exit door and tried to grab the handle. A flight attendant stopped EMERSON by placing her hands on top of EMERSON’s hands. The flight attendant engaged EMERSON in conversation in an attempt to distract him from trying to grab the emergency exit handle again. Another flight attendant observed EMERSON make statements such as, “I messed everything up” and that “he tried to kill everybody.” The flight attendant noticed EMERSON take out his cellular phone and appeared to be texting on the phone. EMERSON was heard saying he had just put 84 peoples’ lives at risk tonight including his own.
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EMERSON’s police interview was recorded. EMERSON advised that he believed he was having a “nervous breakdown”, and had not slept in 40 hours. EMERSON said he was an employee of Alaska Airlines and had been a pilot since 2001. EMERSON said he felt dehydrated and tired. EMERSON confirmed that he sat in the cockpit during the flight. EMERSON said, “I didn’t feel okay. It seemed like the pilots weren’t paying attention to what was going on. They didn’t…it didn’t seem right.” EMERSON also said, “Yah…I pulled both emergency shut off handles because I thought I was dreaming and I just wanna wake up.” EMERSON denied taking any medication, but he stated that approximately six months ago he became depressed. The officer and EMERSON talked about the use of psychedelic mushrooms and EMERSON said it was his first-time taking mushrooms.