CHENEY, Wash. — New details have emerged surrounding the off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot who was hitching a ride in the cockpit and allegedly tried to shut off the engines *mid flight* on Sunday.
44-year-old Joseph David Emerson pleaded not guilty to 83 counts of "Attempted Murder" and one count of "Endangering an aircraft" in an Oregon State court on Tuesday afternoon.
KREM 2 has learned the pilot has local ties to the Spokane area.
"It's very concerning. This is such an extremely rare situation," Laura Einsetler, an airline captain said.
Einsetler says what Emerson did on Sunday is rare, but not impossible.
"Especially the larger aircraft have most of our engine controls on the center console," Einsetler said. "The jump seaters and all pilots can access that area."
Emerson now lives in Northern California, but she is originally from Cheney. The Cheney School District confirmed to KREM 2 that Emerson graduated from Cheney high school in 1997. Emerson says he got interested in flying in elementary school. He earned his first pilot's certificate at 17 years old after learning to fly at Felts Field.
On the day of the incident, court documents say Emerson told police he had a nervous breakdown and did not sleep in 40 hours.
"The only thing they told us, what was happening was it was a medical disturbance," Paul Stephen, a passenger said.
Stephen was a passenger on the flight from Everett to San Francisco. He wasn't quite sure what was going on.
"When we were getting close to landing there was a cockpit disturbance," Stephen said.
The documents also say that Emerson took psychedelic mushrooms for the first time 48 hours before the flight. But is unclear whether Emerson was actively under the influence of the mushrooms during the flight.
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