Former pilot who tried to cut off engines during flight after taking magic mushrooms pleads guilty
- icarussmith20
- Sep 5
- 3 min read
A former commercial airline pilot who tried to shut off the engines of a passenger plane midflight in 2023 was convicted Friday and sentenced to probation, but he still faces a federal sentencing, officials said.
Joseph Emerson, who was off duty and not piloting the Horizon Airlines flight but was riding along in a cockpit jump seat, has said he had taken the drug psilocybin, a hallucinogen known as magic mushrooms, before the Oct. 22, 2023, incident above Oregon and regrets it.
He pleaded no contest in Oregon state court to reckless endangerment and first-degree endangering an aircraft, and guilty in federal court, officials said.
In state court, Emerson was sentenced Friday to 50 days in jail, which he has already served, five years’ probation, 664 hours of community service and $60,569 in restitution.
“What Joseph Emerson did was reckless, selfish, and criminal,” Multnomah County, Oregon, Deputy District Attorney Eric Pickard said after sentencing. “We should remember how close he came to ruining the lives of not just the 84 people aboard Flight 2059, but all of their family members and friends as well.”
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The federal charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and a plea agreement does not lay out a recommended sentencing range.
Sentencing in the federal case is set for Nov. 17.
No one was hurt in the incident on the flight on the Alaska Airlines subsidiary, which was traveling from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco.
There were 84 people on the plane, including Emerson. Eleven were children under the age of 14, according to court documents.
The pilot flying the plane told investigators that during the flight Emerson said, “I’m not OK.”
Emerson then reached up and grabbed the red fire suppression handles to pull them down, which would have cut off fuel to the engines, officials said. The pilot and co-pilot stopped him and the plane diverted to Portland.
Emerson told investigators that he had taken psilocybin around 48 hours before the incident, that it was his first time taking the drug, and that he had also struggled with depression, according to court documents and Emerson's attorneys.
Emerson told the Multnomah County court Friday that he had no intention of harming anyone, but that he takes responsibility for his actions. He told the court he is sober and in recovery.
"I still made the decision to take psilocybin, and that led to my inability to determine that I was operating in reality for an extended period of time," Emerson said. "That doesn’t make this right. What happened was wrong and should not have happened, and I bear the responsibility for that."
Emerson pleaded no contest, which means he did not admit guilt, to 83 state counts of reckless endangering another person, which is a misdemeanor, and one count of first-degree endangering aircraft, which is a felony. A no contest plea results in a conviction.
In federal court in Oregon on Friday, Emerson pleaded guilty to one count of interference with flight crew members and attendants.
Alison Snyder, who along with her husband was on the plane, told the state court by remote video Friday that they could have been killed. She called the state sentence insufficient.
“Mr. Emerson knew he was not fit to fly, a requirement for sitting in the cockpit,” she said. “He knew his seat came with a duty to crew and to passengers, and he knew he was not capable of upholding those responsibilities."
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