Psychedelic mushrooms and a 'dream state': Why this pilot tried to shut down plane engines with 84 people on-board

A serious security scare unfolded aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 (Horizon Air) on October 22, 2023, when an off-duty pilot riding in the cockpit jump seat attempted to disable the aircraft’s engines while under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms. In November 2025, he was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release in his federal case.

According to CBS News, the incident occurred while the plane, carrying 84 passengers and crew, was cruising at 31,000 feet near Portland, Oregon, en route from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco. The off-duty pilot, Joseph Emerson, reportedly said, “I’m not OK,” before pulling the two T-handle controls that activate the fire suppression system and cut off fuel to the engines — an action that could have caused a dual-engine flameout.

The operating pilots immediately fought him off and reset the handles in time to maintain engine power. Cockpit audio captured the urgency of the situation as a pilot radioed, “Horizon, we need to make an emergency landing… we got a jump seater just tried to shut our engines off.”

After being removed from the cockpit, Emerson walked to the rear of the aircraft and told a flight attendant, “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad.” He was restrained, and as the flight diverted to Portland, he allegedly tried to grab an emergency exit handle but was stopped.

No injuries were reported.

Emerson later told investigators he had not slept in 40 hours and had taken psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier, claiming he believed he “was dreaming” and pulled the emergency handles because he desperately wanted to “wake up.”

Emerson’s attorneys confirmed he lost his pilot and medical certificates and was terminated by Alaska Airlines.