Alaska

Pilot Joseph Emerson wants to fly again after trying to down plane

Published

2 years ago

August 24, 2024

Pilot Joseph Emerson wants to fly again after trying to down plane

The ex-pilot Alaska Airlines who allegedly tried to crash a plane while tripping on magic mushrooms while off duty wants to fly again.

Joseph Emerson, 44, said the October incident that initially landed him with 83 counts of attempted murder and brought an end to his career in the cockpit was the biggest mistake of his life.

“Of course I want to fly again. I’d be totally disingenuous if I said no,” the former Alaska Airlines pilot told ABC News in an interview published Friday.

“I don’t know in what capacity I’m going to fly again and I don’t know if that’s an opportunity that’s going to be afforded to me. It’s not up to me to engineer that. What is up to me is to do what’s in front of me, put myself in a position where that’s a possibility, that it can happen.”

In the sitdown interview alongside his wife, Sarah, Emerson relived the horrifying moment he spontaneously yanked down two red levers that could have shut down both engines, at 30,000 feet while he was riding in the cockpit jump seat as a standby employee passenger.

The lifelong pilot previously revealed the crack-up was part of a days-long mental breakdown and paranoia spiral ignited by a magic mushroom trip he took with buddies.

The group had reconnected for a weekend getaway in Washington state to reminisce on the life of their late friend whose 2018 death plunged Emerson into deep grief — which was intensified by the drug expedition.

Still reeling days later — despite the effects of mushrooms only lasting several hours — Emerson believed he could break out of his dream-like trance by crashing the San Francisco-bound plane.

“There was a feeling of being trapped, like, ‘Am I trapped in this airplane and now I’ll never go home?’” Emerson told ABC News.

Feeling helpless, Emerson relied on his knowledge of the plane to try to bring him back down to earth — literally and figuratively.

“There are two red handles in front of my face,” Emerson recalled. “And thinking that I was going to wake up, thinking this is my way to get out of this non-real reality, I reached up and I grabbed them, and I pulled the levers.”

“What I thought is, ‘This is going to wake me up,’” Emerson said. “I know what those levers do in a real airplane and I need to wake up from this. You know, it’s 30 seconds of my life that I wish I could change, and I can’t.”

That’s when the pilot tried to shut off the engines. Luckily, he was thwarted by a quick-thinking crew and he was removed from the cockpit.

But his erratic behavior didn’t stop there — Emerson drank directly out of a coffee pot and then tried to open the cabin door so he could jump out.

He was stopped yet again, but this time he asked a flight attendant to handcuff him until the plane made an emergency landing in Portland.

Emerson was arrested and charged with 83 counts of attempted murder – one count for every soul on the aircraft.

The ex-pilot is no longer facing attempted murder charges, but he is still facing more than 80 state and federal charges, including 83 counts of reckless endangerment after prosecutors reduced the charges in December.

He could be heading to trial this fall, but it’s still possible that prosecutors offer a plea deal.

Emerson’s jail physician ruled he suffered from a condition called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), which can cause someone who uses psychedelic mushrooms for the first time to suffer from persistent visual hallucinations or perception issues for several days afterward, ABC reported.

“At the end of the day, I accept responsibility for the choices that I made. They’re my choices,” Emerson told ABC News.

“What I hope through the judicial processes is that the entirety of not just 30 seconds of the event, but the entirety of my experience is accounted for as society judges me on what happened. And I will accept what the debt that society says I owe.”

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Alaska

ICE: Alaska state attorney arrested by immigration officials, held in Tacoma detention center

Published

6 hours ago

July 16, 2026

Press Room

ICE: Alaska state attorney arrested by immigration officials, held in Tacoma detention center

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Shucheng “Charlie” Yang, 32, a Chinese national and attorney with the Alaska Department of Law, on July 10 in Anchorage, according to an ICE spokesperson.

ICE said Yang violated the terms of his admission and is a “deportable alien.”

He is currently being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, pending immigration proceedings.

Yang pled no contest to a speeding ticket he was cited for on May 22. There are no other charges against him listed in the Alaska court system.

Yang is the most recent person in Alaska to be taken into ICE custody at the Tacoma processing center; a Mexican woman living in Soldotna was deported along with her three children in February.

His arrest also comes days after a Colombian man was shot and killed by a federal immigration officer earlier this week in Maine, fueling a new wave of protests against perceived ICE brutality.

State outlines hiring process

The Alaska Department of Administration responded to general questions about verifying employment eligibility for all full-time hires and said the state requires applicants to self-disclose their employment eligibility during the application process.

“The State of Alaska hires individuals who have the legal right to work in the United States,” Policy Advisor Kate Sheehan said. “This employment eligibility is confirmed through the federally mandated I-9 verification process.”

Yang is listed as Department of Law civil attorney on the State of Alaska employee directory.

Agencies decline to comment on Yang

Both the Alaska Department of Law and the Office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy declined to address Yang’s employment status or arrest.

“As a practice, the Department of Law does not provide comments on personnel issues,” Information Officer Sam Curtis said.

“We do not comment on personnel issues,” Deputy Press Secretary Grant Robinson said.

Alaska’s News Source is reaching out to Yang through multiple channels while he remains detained in Tacoma.

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Alaska

Alaska university gets funding for critical minerals center

Published

18 hours ago

July 15, 2026

Press Room

Alaska university gets funding for critical minerals center

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The National Science Foundation has selected the University of Alaska Fairbanks to be the site of a new critical minerals research program, making it one of 12 new technology innovation centers across the nation that received federal funding, according to Yereth Rosen with the Alaska Beacon.

The new Critical Minerals Accelerator Engine in Alaska will receive $15 million in funding for two years and up to $160 million over 10 years, the university said on Tuesday.

The organization will be located at and led by UAF’s Geophysical Institute and will work with more than 40 partners, said Steve Masterman, the university faculty member who helped lead the application for the award. Partners include private companies, Native corporations, nonprofits, other universities and other entities, said Masterman, who formerly served as Alaska’s state geologist.

UAF already conducts scientific research into minerals considered critical to the nation’s economy through its Critical Minerals Collaborative. That program is more scientific and academic-focused, said Masterman, who is its deputy director.

In contrast, the Critical Minerals Accelerator Engine will be focused on putting research to use, determining ways to commercialize resources, addressing supply needs, workforce development and other issues important to the critical minerals industry.

Though the scientific research already conducted at UAF will be helpful, the accelerator idea is industry-focused, Masterman said.

“This is quite different because it’s an economic development project,” he said.

Alaska is rich in resources considered critical minerals. The state has 56 of the 60 minerals classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as critical to the nation’s economy, UAF said in its statement.

In addition to the Alaska award, the NSF on Tuesday announced its awards for other innovation engines in different parts of the nation. The sites have different primary purposes, such as disaster prevention and mitigation, robotics development and development of advanced information technologies.

The Alaska innovation engine will be led by Lee Ann Munk, a faculty member at the Geophysical Institute and a geosciences professor at UAF’s College of Natural Science and Mathematics. Munk is currently director of the Critical Minerals Collaborative at UAF.

“Our NSF Engine is built on the simple but ambitious idea that Alaska can lead the nation not only with the abundance of its critical mineral resources, but also in how we innovate, develop and deploy the technologies needed to produce them responsibly,” Munk said in a statement released by the university.

“By bringing together researchers, Alaska Native organizations, industry, workforce partners, state and federal agencies, national laboratories and communities, we are creating an engine that accelerates discovery into action,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story was republished with permission from the Alaska Beacon.

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