A former pilot who turned off the engines of a passenger plane from the cockpit jump seat while high on magic mushrooms has been sentenced to time served. Ex-Alaska Airlines aviator Joseph Emerson had been off-duty and on his way back to San Francisco from Washington after honoring a late pilot pal. Still feeling the effects of the psilocybin, he thought he needed to pull the engine’s fire extinguisher handles from the jump seat to wake up from a dream, the court heard. “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,” prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to a federal charge of interference with flight crew members during the October 2023 incident. At the sentencing in Portland, Oregon, he was handed three years of supervised release. He had already paid around $60,000 in restitution to the airline for the disruption caused and spent 46 days in jail after his arrest. No extra jail time was added. Emerson told the court, according to ABC News, “I regret the harm that I caused. I am here as a direct result of my actions.”
Read it at ABC News
