Former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut down engines in-flight shares his story

floofloof@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 83 points – Former Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut down engines in-flight shares his story
abcnews.go.com
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Joe Emerson had been struggling over the death of his best friend, Scott, a pilot who died while on a run six years earlier. Emerson had been away for the weekend with friends, celebrating and remembering Scott.

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On Friday night, the group took psychedelic mushrooms – a drug that can make you hallucinate and typically has effects that last a few hours. Emerson said that for him, the physical side effects lasted days, and the consequences a lifetime.

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"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."

Bullshit. Buuuuuulllllshhhhhiiiiittttt

I love shrooms. They don’t last for days. That motherfucker just fucked up on the job. Probably due to lack of sleep from all that partying. That whole “inception” nonsense is a liiieeeee

He wasn’t on the job though.

He was flying home in the jump seat and reached past the pilot and copilot.

Mental health issue, not on the job performance.

They said he was on mushrooms the day it happened too

IIRC they also said he'd stayed up for something like 48 hours straight before the flight. Mushrooms aren't the type of drug where you can just take more to keep things going. Your body needs like a week to recover before they really work again.

So many people don't know ot understand this. Ive seen so much money wasted on shrooms from people trying to "extend" their trip. Whatever you initially take is what you'll get out of the trip. Everything after is wasted and pissed out. Idk the biology of it I just know from tons of experience taking them.

Yeah, he kept the party going for sure. Good lord, I absolutely hate being on an airplane sober, but I have never thought "damn, if I was only hallucinating on psilocybin, this would be more pleasant."

Intrusive thought, everyone has those, humans are squishy this isn't surprisingly. But blaming it on machine elves, bro, that's not cool...

Don't do drugs, kids

Or, just maybe don't do drugs if you know you have to fly a plane soon and are possibly struggling with depression.

He wasn't flying the plane.

He was getting a free flight from his airline because he was a pilot.

Think it was a cargo plane so he was one of the only passengers. He freaked out, entered the cabin, and started trying to crash the plane. The actual pilots had to hit him with a wrench or something I think to stop him.

And he took them like 12 hours before the flight, this was at the "this is a dream I have to wake up" stage.

At least. That's what I remember from one this happened, it's been a minute

That must be something else because he was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder. 1 for each passenger.

He was in a passenger jet. He had a seat in the cockpit with the actual pilot and copilot.

He was getting a free flight from his airline because he was a pilot.

Think it was a cargo plane so he was one of the only passengers. He freaked out, entered the cabin, and started trying to crash the plane. The actual pilots had to hit him with a wrench or something I think to stop him.

This sounds like the FedEx hijacking attempt, flight 705.

Yeah apparently this is more common than I thought and I'm co flating the two.

Thanks!

Psychedelics can trigger psychotic episodes in some people, especially if they have pre-existing psychotic tendencies. Unfortunately, they’re not for everybody, mainly for this reason. My theory is that they may be making it sound like the mushrooms lasted longer than they normally do in hopes of potentially saving his future piloting career. I don’t think it will work, but I think that’s the motive behind their narrative. Admitting that you’re prone to psychotic tendencies will ensure that license never gets reinstated. Pilots tend to hide things like this. They love flying and losing that ability is losing the love of your life and your livelihood.

Is the difference between "the effect of the mushrooms lasted several days" and "the mushrooms triggered a psychotic episode that lasted several days" any more than phrasing? The man has not shown a tendency to psychotic episodes at any time other than this one time he did mushrooms.

Sure. I mean, if I die from blood loss, I don’t say a knife wasn’t involved because I died 15 minutes from the time I was stabbed. Just like with the knife, the drug was no longer actively acting on his brain (unless he lied about when he took it), but he was still feeling the effect of it, technically. For most people, this after effect is pleasant and gives one more of a sense of being present and connected.

There’s nuance, here, though. Here’s another exaggerated analogy: If a majority of people can eat peanuts, but you’re allergic and somebody gave you some and you ate them, what killed you? Was it the peanuts, the allergy, the person that gave them to you, or was it yourself?