An off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot has been charged with over 80 counts of attempted murder after he allegedly attempted to shut off a plane’s engines midflight on Sunday, causing the flight to divert to Portland.
Flight 2059 took off from Everett, Washington, and was bound for San Francisco, Alaska Airlines said in a statement. It was operated by Alaska Airlines subsidiary Horizon Air, but was diverted due to a “credible security” threat linked to a person in the cockpit’s flight deck jump seat.
“The jump seat occupant unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines,” the airline said. “The Horizon Captain and First Officer quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.”
The flight crew followed “appropriate FAA procedures and guidance from air traffic control” in landing at Portland International Airport. The flight took off just before 5:30 p.m. local time and landed about an hour later in Portland, according to FlightAware data.
Audio of the plane’s communications with air traffic control reveal an attempt to turn off the plane’s engines.
“As a heads up. We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. It doesn’t sound like he’s got any issue in the back right now. I think he’s subdued,” the pilot of the plane told air traffic control. “Other than that we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”
Typically, off-duty airline pilots sit in the jump seat of the flight deck behind the pilots to fly back to their home base if seats are available.
After landing, Joseph David Emerson, 44, was arrested by Port of Portland police.
He was booked on 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment, and a count of endangering an aircraft, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office booking records.
The FBI is investigating the incident.
The FAA sent alerts to airlines after the Horizon Air incident saying “a validated jump seat passenger attempted to disable aircraft engines while at cruise altitude by deploying the engine fire suppressions system.”
The crew was ultimately able to “subdue the subject,” remove them from the flight deck, divert the plane and land safely, the alert said.
In a second notification, the FAA clarified that the security event is not connected to current world events.
All passengers were able to travel on a later flight.
“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,” Alaska Airlines said.
