Plane audio shows moments after off-duty pilot ‘tried to crash plane’ with 83 on board after taking mushrooms

Chilling plane audio reveals the moments after an off-duty pilot ‘tried to crash a plane’ with 83 people on board.

Joseph David Emerson was arrested after the incident on the Alaska Airlines Flight 2059 on 22 October 2023.

Two days before the flight, the 44-year-old said he and his friends had taken psychedelic mushrooms in commemoration of a best mate’s death.

Claiming to experience a severe mental breakdown, he said the effects had lasted for days and he didn’t feel quite right when travelling to the airport. As a standby employee passenger, Emerson was sat in the cockpit jump seat when things went very wrong.

While effects of mushrooms typically only last several hours, they had intensified the man’s grief.

He told ABC News he felt ‘trapped’ and began to ask himself: “Am I trapped in this airplane and now I'll never go home?”

Emerson claimed he used his knowledge of the plane to calm him down but in an apparent trance-like state, it was more real than he realised.

“There are two red handles in front of my face,” he 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.”

He apparently thought it was ‘going to wake him 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."

Except the red handles were actually the engine shut-off controls, and could have put everyone onboard the flight in grave danger.

Luckily, the quick-thinking crew pulled his hands away and he was removed from the cockpit.

Emerson thought that he was trapped in the plane, causing him to try and shut the engines down. (Sam Sweeney/ABC News)

Audio recorded by LiveATC.net, reveals the pilot saying to Seattle-area air traffic controllers: "We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit, and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issues in the back right now.

"I think he’s subdued. Other than that, we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and are parked.”

Emerson went on to ask a flight attendant to handcuff him before he caused any further harm after still acting out.

He was taken into custody when the plane landed and was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder and one federal count of endangering an aircraft.

The former pilot plead not guilty on all counts.

Emerson was taken into custody when the plane landed, spending 45 days behind bars before being granted bond, with it taking a full four days from the day he took mushrooms to fully recover and return to normal.

His charges were eventually reduced and while in jail, a physician told Emerson he had suffered from a condition called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) which can cause a first-time psychedelics user to suffer persistent visual hallucinations or perception issues for several days afterward.