Ever since 9/11, flight hijackings have largely become a thing of the past. Today, if you see a plane in the news, it’s probably because some lady went crazy on it.
However, some in-flight news stories buck the trend. Such is the case with the story of Joseph D. Emerson, who is currently facing “83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft” after attempting to hijack a plane.
So what exactly happened here? According to CNN, Emerson is an off-duty pilot who was riding on the Alaska Airlines flight in the “jump seat.” This is a seat in the cockpit offered to pilots who are commuting or traveling in some other official capacity.
However, it seems that Emerson didn’t just want a ride. Suddenly, in the middle of the flight, Emerson got up, took a few steps over to the control panel — and tried to turn off the whole dang plane. “Alaska Airlines told CNN the off-duty pilot attempted to shut down both engines by pulling the Embraer 175’s engine fire extinguisher handles,” the cable news channel reported. “The quick reaction of the captain and first officer kept the engines from failing completely, the airline said. The plane was at cruise altitude when the incident occurred.”
After the man had been wrestled away from the controls, the crew placed him back with the passengers (thanks, guys!). That said, it seems that his quick mass murder attempt scratched whatever itch he had, as the rest of the flight went just fine.
In a surprisingly calm cockpit recording, the pilot can be heard telling air traffic control that he’s just chilling ever since the incident. He’d also like law enforcement to be at the gate once they arrive at the airport, but for the time being, he’s doing okay. He even describes the hijacker’s act of almost killing an entire plane of people as “going a little bit overboard.” You don’t say!
To date, it seems like no one has any idea why Emerson did this. Regardless, he’s safely in police custody, and the pilot who handled this situation is off to fly another day — hopefully with a fat bonus check in his pocket.
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