Alaska Airlines Lawsuit Alleges Pilot Who Tried to Crash Oct. 2023 Flight Should Not Have Been Allowed in Cockpit

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Three passengers have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air Industries after an off-duty pilot during an October 22 flight intentionally tried to crash the aircraft by activating its fire suppression system to shut down fuel flow to the engines. 

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The 30-page lawsuit, filed in Washington’s King County Superior Court on November 2, says that the plaintiffs and other proposed class members aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 2059, operated by Horizon Air, were “left in the dark about what was happening” as the plane’s two pilots wrestled with Alaska Airlines pilot Captain Joseph David Emerson for control over the aircraft, which was bound for San Francisco International Airport. After Emerson left the cockpit, where he had been sitting in the plane’s jumpseat, an auxiliary seat often used by airline crew, he was escorted to the back of the plane where, mid-flight, he attempted to open the cabin door, the filing says.

The case charges that Alaska Airlines’ narrative about the incident paints Emerson, who reportedly announced to the other pilots in the cockpit that he was “not OK” prior to attempting to sabotage the flight, as the sole wrongdoer while directing attention away from the fact that the airline failed to so much as question whether the pilot was fit to fly. 

“Had they done so, he more likely than not would have been denied admission and could not have been in position to nearly kill everyone aboard,” the suit contends. 

The complaint characterizes Alaska Airlines’ public statement about the harrowing incident as “disappointingly self-serving” and rife with “clever rhetoric” in an effort to “soften” the fact that a pilot for the airline deliberately attempted to crash an airplane with 79 passengers and two flight attendants on board. 

“Emerson attempted to kill everyone aboard,” the lawsuit bluntly states. “And the aircraft was not, in fact, secured ‘without incident.’ Rather, there was a struggle in the cockpit and later Emerson tried again to sabotage the plane.”

While Flight 2059 was at cruise altitude, Emerson, who the lawsuit describes as “a large man at 6 feet 1 inch tall and weigh[ing] about 205 pounds,” ripped off his earphones and told the cockpit that he was “not OK” before trying to crash the plane by activating the fire suppression system to shut down fuel to the engines. Per the suit, the flight crew would later tell investigators that the plane was “mere seconds away from being turned into a glider.” 

After the pilots and Emerson “wrestled for seconds” over control of the plane, Emerson “stopped and said he was okay, and left the flight deck,” which allowed the crew enough time to restore the flow of fuel to the engines, the case relays. Emerson then walked from the cockpit to the back of the plane, was voluntarily placed in wrist restraints, and later tried to open an emergency exit door before being stopped by a flight attendant, the suit reads. 

All the while, passengers did not know what was wrong, the lawsuit states. 

“At least one passenger reportedly was in contact with a sibling who used the commercial internet application Flightradar to relay to that passenger the in-flight communication updates between the cockpit and Air Traffic Control. Air Traffic Control asked the flight crew to identify the ‘threat level.’ The crew responded, ‘Just to give you a heads up, we’ve got the guy who 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 is subdued. Other than that, yeah, we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.’ At some point a pilot announced to the passengers that there had been a disturbance in the cockpit.”

Flight 2059 was diverted to Portland, Oregon and landed safely. Upon landing, Emerson was removed from the plane by law enforcement and arrested as flight attendants told passengers that he “had a mental breakdown,” the lawsuit says. 

Emerson reportedly told the FBI that he had not slept in 40 hours and had consumed psychedelic mushrooms two days before the incident. The pilot was charged with more than 160 crimes, including 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft, the lawsuit states. 

According to the complaint, mental illness is “pervasive” among pilots. Federal authorities, per the Washington Post, have been investigating nearly 5,000 pilots suspected of falsifying medical records to hide that they were seeking help for mental health disorders and other serious conditions that could render them unfit to fly. The lawsuit claims that Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air were aware of the facts brought to light by the newspaper and/or similar concerns before Emerson boarded Flight 2059. 

Further, the case says that while the Federal Aviation Administration has rules concerning drug and alcohol tests, the agency’s regulations do not specifically address hallucinogenic drugs such as mushrooms containing psilocybin. 

“On information and belief, the defendant airlines were aware of those regulations but did not administer to Emerson or require administration of such a test, or any test capable of detecting exposure to psilocybin, to Emerson between the time of his last medical examination and boarding Flight 2059 on October 22, 2023,” the lawsuit alleges. 

The case looks to cover all passengers aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 on October 22, 2023 who were not at that time on-duty employees of either Alaska Airlines or Horizon Air. 

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