A former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut down the engines of a plane while it was in flight, two days after he took psychedelic mushrooms, expressed regret to passengers and thanked the crew members who had stopped him as he pleaded guilty or no contest on Friday to state and federal charges.
The former pilot, Joseph D. Emerson, has said he was having a “nervous breakdown” and had been struggling with depression when he reached up and yanked two fire-suppression handles — intended to cut the fuel supply and stop both engines — on a full flight from Everett, Wash., to San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2023.
Appearing in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, Ore., on Friday, Mr. Emerson, who was off duty and sitting in an extra seat in the cockpit that day, expressed regret for the harm he had caused. He said he had been in recovery for alcohol use and, even though he had no intention of harming anyone, he still made the decision to consume psilocybin mushrooms.
“What happened was wrong and should not have happened and I bear the responsibility for that,” he said, adding that he was committed to “trying to progress and become better.”
The plea agreements, which judges approved on Friday, spared Mr. Emerson prison time on state charges but could still result in a federal prison sentence.
In federal court in Portland, Mr. Emerson, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of interfering with a flight crew, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. His lawyers said that federal prosecutors planned to recommend a year in prison, but that the defense would ask for probation instead when Mr. Emerson is sentenced on Nov. 17.
After that hearing, Mr. Emerson pleaded no contest in Multnomah County Circuit Court to 83 misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment — one for every person onboard the plane — and one count of endangering an aircraft, a felony. He was sentenced to 664 hours of community service and ordered to pay $59,608 in restitution to Alaska Airlines.
Mr. Emerson said he had consumed psychedelic mushrooms on a weekend getaway with friends to commemorate the death of his best friend, which had plunged him into deep grief. He said he was still hallucinating two days later, when he boarded the flight and pulled the fire-supression handles.
“I thought it would stop both engines, the plane would start to head towards a crash, and I would wake up,” Mr. Emerson said in an interview with The New York Times in November 2023, when he was being held at the county jail in Portland, where the plane landed.
After Mr. Emerson pulled the handles, the pilots grabbed his wrists and pushed the handles back into place, averting a potential disaster.
Mr. Emerson left the cockpit and walked toward to the back of the plane, where he told a flight attendant, “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad,” according to a criminal complaint. After he was restrained in the back of the plane, he tried to grab the handle of an emergency exit door, but was stopped by a flight attendant, federal prosecutors said.
The flight, which was operated by Horizon Air, a regional subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, was diverted to Portland, where Mr. Emerson was arrested and charged.
At the hearing in Multnomah County Court on Friday, Alison Snyder, who was a passenger on the plane with her husband, Steven, criticized Mr. Emerson’s actions that day, and called for better policies to help pilots struggling with mental health issues.
“The choices that Joseph Emerson made that day and the policies that allowed them nearly led to our deaths,” Ms. Snyder said via videoconference.
A prosector read a letter from another passenger who said it would be appropriate for Mr. Emerson to visit schools and speak about the dangers of psychedelic mushrooms.
Mr. Emerson thanked the passengers for their comments.
“I am more than happy to speak to as many schools as possible for the rest of my life,” he said. He also thanked the crew members, especially the pilots, who stopped him, saying they “saved my life.”
The episode led to scrutiny of Federal Aviation Administration rules that can ground pilots who are diagnosed with depression or other mental health issues. Pilots who seek psychiatric help or a prescription for antidepressants can lose, at least temporarily, the medical certificate that makes them eligible to fly.
Mr. Emerson, who has two young children, said in the 2023 interview that those policies had left him to struggle alone, rather than risk losing his livelihood as a professional pilot. A 2022 survey of pilots in the United States found that 56 percent reported having avoided health care in some way.
“A lot of us aren’t as forthcoming as we otherwise would be,” Mr. Emerson said.
After Mr. Emerson was charged, the National Transportation Safety Board held a summit on pilot mental health. An expert panel convened by the F.A.A. made 24 recommendations in April 2024 to break down barriers that prevent pilots and air traffic controllers from reporting mental health issues. The F.A.A. said this week that it had adopted three of the recommendations and was addressing others that it has the legal authority to change.
“The F.A.A. is committed to prioritizing the mental health of pilots,” the agency said in a statement. “We encourage them to seek help early if they have a mental health condition since most, if treated, do not disqualify a pilot from flying.”
Last year, Mr. Emerson and his wife started a nonprofit to help pilots struggling with mental health issues. His lawyer said Mr. Emerson had traveled around the country — by bus and by car, but never by plane — speaking about the issue.
At the hearing in Multnomah County Court on Friday, Judge Cheryl Albrecht said she trusted that Mr. Emerson truly regretted his actions. She said it appeared that he had worked assiduously to call attention to “the difficulties that pilots face by always having to be that person — that person that can never be fallible.”
“But we all are, as we know,” Judge Albrecht said.
Michael Levenson covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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