Off-Duty Pilot Tries To Turn Off Plane Engines Mid-Flight

Source: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin / Getty

Oh HELL the f**k naw!

If you have a fear of flying this story will do absolutely nothing to comfort your anxiety. According to ABC News, an off-duty airline pilot kirked the f**k out and tried to kill an entire flight of passengers. Joseph David Emerson was sitting in the flight deck jump seat, inside the cockpit, when he attempted to shut down the plane’s engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles. He was promptly hemmed up by the flight crew and handcuffed to his seat.

The Alaskan Airlines flight was en route from Everett, Washington to San Francisco and was subsequently diverted to Portland where Emerson was taken into custody. As a result of his malevolent mayhem, he was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, another 83 counts of reckless endangerment, one misdemeanor, and one felony count of endangering an aircraft.

Just moments before the incident, Emerson was heard saying something to the equivalent of, “I’m not right” before he made his suicidal/ homicidal move. Alaska Airlines says the staff “quickly responded” and the engines never actually lost power.

Aubrey Gavello, a passenger aboard the flight, said that neither she nor the other passengers had any idea about the chaos that had erupted until an attendant made an announcement over the loudspeaker.

“We didn’t know anything was happening until the flight attendant got on the loudspeaker and made an announcement that there was an emergency situation and the plane needed to land immediately,” Gavello told ABC News. “About 15 minutes later, she got back on and said that there was a medical emergency.”

Once the plane arrived in Portland, police officers escorted Emerson off the plane and an attendant made another announcement that the off-duty pilot had suffered a “mental breakdown.” The Federal Aviation Administration released a statement to reassure the public that this incident was not related to the events happening in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas.

Scary stuff.