Ove the years, I've flown a fair amount, and, if I have on occasion given fleeting thought to the idea that the plane might crash, I've never actually thought that the plane might crash because the pilot's a psychopath.
Even after, a few years back, when a suicidal co-pilot on a flight from Spain to Germany locked the pilot out of the cabin and crashed the plain into a mountainside, I wasn't on my next flight saying a little prayer that God is the co-pilot, not someone who might put their suicidal ideation into practice.
You get on the flight and your assumption is that the pilot is going to be A-OK.
So it was something of a shock to this quasi-frequent flyer's system when I read last month about an Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to turn the engines off in mid-flight.
Fortunately, Joseph David Emerson wasn't the pilot. Nor was he the co-pilot. But he was an off-duty pilot, hanging in the cockpit on an almost-ill-fated flight from Everett, Washington to San Francisco.
He was sitting in the jump seat, which:
...is located in the cockpit and usually occupied by off-duty pilots, NTSB, the FAA or air traffic controllers in instances such as commuting between airports. (Source: USA Today)
Fortunately for the 83 folks on board, and thanks to the pilot and co-pilot, Emerson didn't get all that far.
During the flight, Emerson allegedly attempted to pull the fire extinguisher handles on the engines, causing a “credible security threat,” Alaska Airlines told USA TODAY in a statement. “The Horizon Captain and First Officer quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident,” the Alaska statement continued.
And now Emerson has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder.
Wow.
The pilots on board were, as flyboys are, in my flying experience, wont to be, cool as cucumbers about getting Emerson out of the cockpit and out of nefarious commission.
“We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. And he — doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back right now, and I think he’s subdued,” one of the pilots said on audio captured by LiveATC.net. “Other than that, we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”
Not surprisingly, law enforcement was there waiting to snap the cuffs on Emerson when the plane landed. Local police and the FBI are both in on the case. In addition to the felony charges for those 83 attempted murders, Emerson:
,,,is being charged with 83 charges of attempted murder, which are felony offenses. He’s also facing 83 charges of reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, and one count of endangering an aircraft, which is a class C felony.
Initially, there were a couple of theories of this case.
One was that Joseph Emerson suffers from mental illness. The other was that or that he was just goofing around, really wasn't doing anything, pissed off the pilot and co-pilot, and found himself over and out.
Within a day or so, the mental illness hypothesis was looking like a strong possibility. Emerson spoke of having a nervous breakdown, noted that he'd gone 40 hours without sleep before the incident, and said that he'd been suffering from depression for the past six months. He also:
...allegedly discussed use of psychedelic mushrooms, the complaint said.
...The FBI is investigating when exactly he allegedly took the mushrooms, according to a source familiar with the investigation. They're trying to figure out whether this was a psychedelic trip, a mental health crisis or something else, the source said. (Source: ABC News)
All this leaves me wondering how often pilots undergo psychological evaluations to make sure they're coping well with their sky-high pressure, stratospherically stressful jobs. Hope it's regularly, but understand that a pilot experiencing mental health issues might not want to admit it, fearing that they'd be pulled off the job.
Meanwhile, I'm just happy that most flights I'll ever be on have both a pilot and a co-pilot. The probability of both of them having a simultaneously mental health crisis is probably low Which doesn't guarantee that the mentally healthy pilot will be able to handle the pilot having a crisis. Still, it's something.
And I'm betting that things may become a bit stricter when it comes to someone sitting in the cockpit in a jump seat.
Bottom line: oy!
These skies may not be quite as friendly (and sane) as I've been lulled into believing...
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