A pilot allegedly tried to take down a plane. He’s blaming mushrooms

For two decades, Joseph D Emerson had a successful career as an airline pilot. He joined the Alaska Air Group in 2001 as a first officer, before becoming a pilot in 2019.

But, on Sunday, something suddenly changed when the pilot was involved in an incident that has shocked people who know him to the core.

While travelling in the flight deck jump seat in the cockpit of a plane flying from Seattle to San Francisco, the 44-year-old allegedly attempted to cut off fuel to the engines.

He was subdued by the flight crew, arrested and hit with 167 charges, including 83 counts of first-degree attempted murder. He now also faces a federal charge of interfering with flight crew members and attendants.

No one was hurt in the incident, authorities said, but the FBI is working with the Port of Portland police to investigate the incident.

Many questions remain unanswered as to what led Mr Emerson to allegedly attempt to crash the plane mid-flight.

Here’s what we know so far:

What happened on the flight?

Authorities said Mr Emerson, who was off-duty at the time, was travelling in the flight deck jump seat in the cockpit when he suddenly tried to shut down both of the plane’s engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles.

The 44-year-old was then subdued by flight crew as the captain and first officer intervened to keep the engines running. Mr Emerson was escorted by a flight attendant to the rear of the aircraft where he was placed in wrist restraints and belted into the aft jump seat, reportedly warning cabin crew: “You need to cuff me right now or it’s going to be bad,” according to affidavits.

According to Alaska Airlines, Mr Emerson also attempted to grab the handle of the emergency exit during the aircraft’s descent before being stopped by a flight attendant.

A flight attendant told police she heard Mr Emerson say: “I messed everything up,” and that he had stated that he had “tried to kill everybody.”

The flight, which was travelling from Seattle to San Francisco, was diverted to Portland, and all 80 passengers on board were able to board a new plane.

Passengers who were on board the plane told ABC News that they were not immediately alerted to what Alaska Airlines called the “security threat”, until a flight attendant told them over the speaker that there was “an emergency situation and the plane needed to land…