'Mental breakdown': Off-duty US pilot, who tried to shut down plane's engines mid-air, faces attempted murder charges

An off-duty pilot in the US, identified as Joseph David Emerson was riding in the extra seat in the cockpit of a Horizon Air passenger jet and tried to shut down the engines in midflight and had to be subdued by the crew, a pilot flying the plane told air traffic controllers.

Portland: Pilots are known to face and handle a lot of pressure as they are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people and even a small error of judgment on their part can prove catastrophic.

However, a bizarre incident has come to the fore from the US where a pilot, who was not even flying the passenger aircraft, attempted to shut its engines mid-air. The incident took place on Monday in a San Francisco-bound Horizon Air flight. The off-duty pilot Joseph David Emerson, 44, was eventually apprehended for his act and now faces charges including attempted murder and reckless endangerment.

Apparently, Joseph, according to one of the passengers on the flight, had a "mental breakdown". The passenger told a news channel that the flight crew had alerted them about a medical emergency in the cockpit before the emergency diversion. “The flight attendant got back on the speaker and said, plain and simple, ‘He had a mental breakdown. We needed to get him off the plane immediately,’" the passenger was quoted saying by the New York Post.

The flight had to be diverted to Portland Oregon after the pilot and co-pilot on the aircraft swiftly responded to the situation, ensuring that engine power was not lost, and the crew successfully secured the aircraft without further complications. Notably, no weapons were involved in the threat. The airline said in a statement that the captain and co-pilot "quickly responded, engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident."

"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. Passengers on board experienced confusion and stress, as the disruptive individual moved from the cockpit to the back of the plane without creating a commotion, only to be handcuffed to a railing.

This unusual incident occurred on a Horizon Air Embraer 175 carrying 80 passengers and four crew members. Thankfully, the situation was managed, and passengers continued their journey to San Francisco on a subsequent flight.

The FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were involved in the investigation, with the FAA stating that the jump seat passenger attempted to disable the engines using the fire-suppression system.

John Cox, a retired airline pilot who is now a safety consultant, said it isn't hard to activate the fire handles on a jet. "You want them to be accessible in case of an engine fire," he said. "It's possible to restart the engines once the fire handles are returned to their normal position," he added.

"This is an extremely rare event. In 53 years, I have never heard of a jump seat rider attempting to shut down engines. The third pilot can be invaluable in cases where a crew must deal with a complex situation," Cox said.

Similar incidents- In 1994, a FedEx pilot who was facing possible termination tried to kill the crew and crash the plane. The crew subdued the hijacker, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

In 2018, a pilot in the jump seat of a Boeing 737 Max operated by Indonesia's Lion Air emerged as a hero after helping the crew stop the plane's nose from repeatedly pointing down. Disaster was averted — or delayed until the next flight of the plane, which crashed, killing all 189 people on board.

In 2018, a Horizon Air ground agent stole an empty plane at Seattle's Sea-Tac International Airport and crashed into a small island in Puget Sound after being chased by military jets that scrambled to intercept the aircraft. The man told an air traffic controller that he "wasn't really planning on landing" and described himself as "a broken guy." (With AP inputs)