Alaska Air pilot charged with 83 counts of attempted murder

An off-duty pilot for Alaska Air Group Inc. was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder after he allegedly tried to shut off power to a plane’s engines mid-flight.

The person was riding as a passenger in the cockpit jump seat of an Oct. 22 flight when he “unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines,” Alaska said Monday in a statement. The flight from the Seattle area to San Francisco, operated by Alaska’s Horizon Air regional subsidiary, was safely diverted to Portland, Oregon, where the suspect was taken into custody by law enforcement.

“The Horizon captain and first officer quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident,” Alaska said. No injuries were reported and the passengers were re-booked on a later flight.

A spokesperson for the Port of Portland, which oversees the city’s airport, identified the suspect as Joseph Emerson. Calls to Emerson’s cell phone went straight to voicemail and it wasn’t immediately clear if he had retained an attorney.

Emerson, 44, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, according to his pilot’s license on file with the US Federal Aviation Administration.

The incident is being investigated by law enforcement authorities, including the FBI and local police. In addition to the felony attempted murder charges, Emerson was charged with 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft, according to booking information from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.

The FBI “can assure the traveling public there is no continuing threat related to this incident,” the agency said in a statement.

The FAA said in a separate statement that it is “engaged with Alaska and Horizon airlines and is supporting law enforcement investigations.”