An off-duty pilot who occupied the auxiliary cabin seat (jump seat) on a flight from Horizon Air was arrested after trying to turn off the engines of an Embraer E175 during a commercial flight. The unusual event happened last Sunday (22) on flight AS-2059 from Everett to San Francisco, with more than 80 occupants on board.
Faced with the unexpected incident, the flight crew arrested the pilot and declared an emergency after finding a threat on board the aircraft, changing the flight to Portland, in the US state of Oregon.
The FAA issued an alert to pilots stating that “a enger authorized to use the jump seat in the flight deck attempted to disable the aircraft's engines while at cruising altitude by deploying the engine fire suppression system.”
After being arrested by the FBI, the pilot was identified as 44-year-old Joseph David Emerson. He now faces 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of unlawful conduct and one count of endangering the aircraft.
As Horizon Air is a subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, Alaska issued a statement stating that both the pilot and co-pilot “they acted quickly so that engine power was not lost, and that the crew protected the aircraft without further incident".
The jump seat is generally used by airlines to accommodate pilots or employees who are preparing for flights or in transit to their bases. Both in Brazil and in the United States, it is quite common for pilots from other companies to 'ride' in this seat.
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