Pilot Attempts Plane Shutdown, Faces Sentencing

Former Alaska Airlines pilot, Joseph Emerson, faces sentencing for attempting to shut down a passenger planes engines last year. Emerson, who was off-duty but in the cockpit, pleaded guilty to charges and is now seeking probation, while prosecutors request a one-year prison sentence. The incident occurred on a flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco, with Emerson subdued by the flight crew and the plane safely diverted to Portland, Oregon. Emerson, from Pleasant Hill, California, was charged federally with interfering with a flight crew and separately in Oregon with endangering another person and an aircraft. He was released from custody in December 2023 under strict conditions, including mental health treatment, sobriety, and staying away from aircraft. In September 2023, Emerson received a fifty-day jail sentence, five years of probation, six hundred sixty-four hours of community service, and over sixty thousand dollars in restitution. Half of his community service can be performed at a pilot health nonprofit he founded after his arrest. DNN | The Daily News Now! The world’s first global local news network. Every city. Every story. AI powered. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.