Pilot Tries To 'Disrupt' Engines, Faces Attempted Murder Charges: PD

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — An off-duty pilot on an Alaska Airlines plane bound Sunday for San Francisco is facing 83 charges of attempted murder after he unsuccessfully tried to shut off the plane's engine mid-flight.

The pilot, Joseph David Emerson, 44, was arrested by Port of Portland police and remained in custody Monday morning without bail, according to jail records from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.

A credible security threat was received in-air from Alaska Airlines Flight 2059, operated by Horizon Air, after it left Everett, Washington en route to San Francisco, Alaska Airlines said in a statement emailed to Patch Monday morning.

The threat was related to an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, traveling in the flight deck jump seat, who 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,” Alaska Airlines said.

The flight was safely diverted to Portland International Airport per FAA procedures and with the help of air traffic controllers.

Alaska Airlines confirmed the pilot was taken into custody by law enforcement and said the FBI and Port of Portland Police Department were among those investigating the event.

"All passengers on board were able to travel on a later flight," Alaska Airlines said. "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."

Flight 2059 departed the Everett airport at 5:23 p.m. Sunday, two minutes earlier than it was scheduled to, and landed at PDX in Portland at 6:26 p.m., according to flight tracker Flight Aware. The website shows the plane's flight path as it diverts from what would have been a two-hour flight to San Francisco and does a U-turn in the air to Portland.

A flight deck jump seat is in the cockpit behind the pilot and co-pilot and it is typically used by off-duty pilots who are commuting to their home base or traveling elsewhere. An audio recording of the flight crew's communications with air traffic control confirms the jump seat occupant's reported attempt to turn off the plane's engines.

The recording also reveals Emerson was successfully removed from the cockpit and was "subdued." Law enforcement was requested upon landing.

"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."

The Port of Portland confirmed in a statement to Patch that the flight crew detained Emerson after he caused an inflight disturbance in the cockpit and that Port of Portland officers met the flight and took him into custody without incident.

"The Port of Portland Police Department is working closely with our partners at the FBI, TSA, FAA, and Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office," a spokesperson for the Port said. "The subject was lodged at the Multnomah County Detention Center on multiple charges and the investigation is ongoing."

Booking information showed that in addition to 83 felony attempted murder charges, Emerson also faces one felony charge of endangering an aircraft and 83 misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment.

"He's A Really Nice Man," Neighbor Says: Report

An elderly man who lives in the same neighborhood as Emerson in Pleasant Hill, a quiet suburban city in the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area, told reporters Emerson is a "really nice man" who recently helped him find items in a local Safeway grocery store.

Emerson also recently lent the neighbor, Lou Rossi, some logs to build a workbench for his son, Rossi told The Daily Mail, describing Emerson as married with two sons.

"I watched the news all the time, and I see things happen in neighborhoods where people say they could never believe someone would do something like this," Rossi said. "All I could do is vouch for his character. I've helped him do things around his house. He does a lot of stuff with his kids. I can't say one word that would be derogatory towards him at all."

• READ MORE: Bay Area Neighbors Shocked At News Of Pilot's Arrest: Report

"All I could tell you is he is a really nice man, and his wife Sarah is a really nice lady, and they never, ever even remotely made me think anything negative about them.," said Rossi, a retired U.S. Air Force veteran who would sometimes talk to Emerson about planes and engines, just casually.

Rossi said Emerson seemed to enjoy his work. "He was doing a lot of training time," Rossi said.
"I could always tell when he was gone because his car would be gone."

Passengers Told Plane Needs To Immediately Land: Report

A preliminary investigation indicated Emerson may have tried to pull the fire extinguisher handles on the engines, a federal official briefed on the probe told ABC News. He was then overtaken by the flight crew who subdued him, then handcuffed him to a seat, according to the news report.

Emerson was on his way to San Francisco — but apparently not home — as he was scheduled to be on a flight crew of a 737, the official also told ABC News.

Flight 2059 passenger Aubrey Gavello said she and the other 79 passengers were not aware anything was happening on the plane until a flight attendant announced there was "an emergency situation and the plane needed to land immediately."

" … About 15 minutes later, she got back on and said that there was a medical emergency," Gavello told ABC News.

Gavello recalled hearing the flight attendant tell Emerson, "We're going to be fine, it's OK, we'll get you off the plane,' so I really thought this was a medical emergency."

According to another passenger, Alex Wood, the pilot announced: "There was a disturbance in the cockpit."

Wood said: "It was very professional, handled very calmly, and we didn't really know what was going on until we landed.