The off-duty pilot who tried to shut down the engines of a Horizon Air flight in October has been indicted on 83 counts, authorities say.
Pleasant Hill, California resident Joseph Emerson, 44, is facing one count of reckless endangerment for each of the 83 passengers who were on board Flight 2059, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. He’s also been charged with one count of endangering an aircraft, the office reports. However, Emerson has not been charged with attempted murder. There’s been no word on why prosecutors opted against filing the more serious charges.
Emerson had hitched a ride aboard the San Francisco-bound flight and was sitting in the flight deck jump seat before he leapt up and attempted to shut down the plane’s engines mid-flight, says a rep for Alaska Airlines, Horizon’s parent company. After a struggle broke out between Emerson and the plane’s pilots, he left the cockpit and the flight was diverted to Portland. He was initially charged with interfering with flight crew members and attendants, a count to which he’s already pleaded “not guilty.”
