The off-duty pilot accused of trying to crash a plane with 84 people onboard has shared the text message he sent his wife following an emergency landing.
On October 22 last year, pilot Joseph David Emerson took off on Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 as a passenger. Also on board were 79 passengers and four members of crew.
Operated by Horizon Air, the flight was traveling from Paine Field in Everett, Washington, to San Francisco International Airport.
As reported by PEOPLE, Emerson had been traveling in the cockpit’s jump seat when he suffered a severe mental breakdown.
Emerson admitted to taking psychedelic mushrooms two days before the flight with some friends. He says it was the first time he had done so and that he was struggling after the loss of his best friend several years prior.
But while flying, he threw his headset across the cockpit and stated that he was “not okay”, per police documents. He then attempted to pull the fire extinguisher handles, which would have shut down the plane’s engines.
Crew members were able to restrain Emerson before any damage or serious harm was caused.
After announcing an in-flight emergency, the plane was diverted to Portland.
Emerson was later arrested and charged with 83 counts of attempted murder. These charges were later dropped, but he is still facing a number of federal and state charges, including 83 counts of reckless endangerment.
In a new interview with ABC News, Emerson said that his behavior had been triggered by invasive thoughts that he was never going to make it home to his family.
“There was a feeling of being trapped, like, ‘Am I trapped in this airplane and now I’ll never go home?'” he recalled, believing he was locked in some sort of trance. “I was fully convinced [the flight] isn’t real and I’m not going home.”
Fortunately, the flight’s crew acted quickly and managed to subdue Emerson before he could cause serious harm. Emerson was moved to the back of the plane, preventing any further attempts to sabotage the aircraft.
In his interview with ABC, Emerson also recalled the moment he messaged his wife – Sarah – to alert her to his actions.
After being removed from the cockpit, he sent Sarah a five-word text message that read: “I made a big mistake.”
Concerned for her husband, Sarah replied: “What’s up? Are you ok?”
Joseph simply replied: “I’m not”.
That message would be the last time she would hear from her husband for days, as he was handcuffed by crew at the back of the plane and then arrested upon landing in Portland.
As previously mentioned, Joseph had been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder – one count for every other passenger and crew member on the aircraft.
During their interview, Sarah recalled the moment she learned about her husband’s charges from a jail receptionist.
“I walk up to the window and say I’m looking for my husband and he kind of just looked on the computer and typed some things in and then nonchalantly tells me the charges, and I lost it,” Sarah recalled to ABC News. “I screamed and I keeled over, and I almost fell.
“They grabbed me and pulled me over because I know what that means. I was in a complete shock.”
In December, a judge ruled that Emerson could be released on bail after he pleaded not guilty. One of his bail conditions was that he could not come within 30 feet of an aircraft.
During his 45 days in jail, he says he was diagnosed with hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). This is when an individual uses psychedelic mushrooms for the first time but continues to suffer from visual hallucinations or perception issues. It can last for several days.
As a result of what he claims caused his actions, Emerson’s defense has argued that there was no criminal intent, telling ABC News: “Simply put: Captain Emerson thought he was in a dream; his actions were taken in a single-minded effort to wake up from that dream and return home to his family.”
Both Joseph and Sarah Emerson have since launched a nonprofit called Clear Skies Ahead, which is aimed that raising funds and awareness of pilot mental health.
Speaking out about FAA regulations and the strict requirements pilots must follow in order to be allowed to fly, Joseph Emerson believes that many pilots stay quiet and fail to speak out about their own mental health issues.
“Right now, if you raise your hand, not in every case, but there’s a perception out there that if you raise your hand and say something’s not right, there’s a very real possibility that you don’t fly again,” he said.
Speaking about his terrifying episode in the sky, he said: “It’s 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t.”
Emerson’s story is also the subject of the August 2024 documentary Lie to Fly.
