PORTLAND — Ex-Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson was sentenced Monday to time served for trying to shut off a plane’s engine midflight.

Emerson, now 46, made international headlines in 2023 for wrestling with pilots to pull levers that could have caused the plane, holding 83 passengers, to crash or at least make an emergency landing. He later claimed that he was experiencing a possibly psychedelic mushroom-induced mental health crisis.

Emerson, appearing in U.S. District Court in Portland, did not receive a prison term but was sentenced to three years of court supervision.

In September, the California man pleaded guilty to a single federal charge, and no contest to dozens of state charges as part of plea agreements with state and federal prosecutors.

Emerson, who has campaigned for r

See Full Page