The newly released audio from Horizon Air Flight 2059 is one of those stories that still makes you shake your head, even two years later. It is hard to imagine anything more unsettling than an off duty pilot, someone trusted with thousands of lives a year, suddenly deciding mid flight that reality is optional. Yet that is exactly what happened in October 2023 when Joseph David Emerson, seated in the jump seat of an Embraer 175, tried to shut off both engines at 31,000 feet. Eighty three people were on that aircraft, expecting a perfectly normal hop from Everett to San Francisco. Instead, they got a real life reminder of why steady professionals are priceless in the cockpit.
Former Alaskan Airlines pilot serves only 46 days in jail after attempting to crash a plane full of people in October 2023.
Fresh off a two day bender of magic mushrooms and insomnia, Joseph Emerson, a deadheading off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot attempted to shut down the engines… pic.twitter.com/cpT3184kw1
— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) December 9, 2025
Emerson removed his headset, calmly told the pilots he was not okay, then reached for the fire suppression handles that would have cut fuel to both engines. Anyone who has ever flown understands what that would mean. At that altitude there is no room for confusion and certainly no room for someone on mushrooms trying to snap himself out of a dream. Captain William Steckel and First Officer Nate Carsh responded the way you hope airline pilots will respond. Steckel physically restrained Emerson while Carsh handled the emergency procedures and radio. No panic, no hesitation.
Flight attendants quickly helped restrain Emerson with flex cuffs and secured him in the back of the cabin. The crew diverted to Portland, landed safely, and not one of the eighty three passengers was injured. The FAA later said the plane was undamaged. That speaks volumes about the quality of the people actually doing the job while an off duty colleague attempted to sabotage the flight because he had not slept in forty hours and had taken psilocybin days earlier.
Emerson was charged with interfering with a flight crew at the federal level. Oregon prosecutors originally threw eighty three counts of attempted murder at him, which were later scaled back after it became clear he had no understanding of what he was doing. He said he was hallucinating, thought he was dying, and believed pulling the handles would snap him out of it. That is not an excuse, but it explains why prosecutors eventually treated it as reckless endangerment rather than attempted mass murder.
At sentencing, Emerson admitted he was responsible and showed remorse. He received time served federally, probation, community service, and restitution. It is a mercy he did not deserve based on what could have happened, but one that only became possible because two pilots and a cabin crew refused to let panic dictate the outcome.
If nothing else, the incident is a reminder of how fragile safety becomes when even one person in a critical chain decides reality is optional.