Sept. 5 (UPI) -- An Alaska Air former pilot who tried to shut down a plane's engines while in an apparent dissociative state is expected to plead guilty Friday in federal court to a single charge of interference with flight crew members and attendants, a felony, and will plead no contest to 83 misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering another person.
The plea hearing will be in Portland, Ore., as the event happened over Oregon air space. He was originally charged with attempted murder.
Former airline captain Joseph Emerson, 46, said he takes full responsibility for what happened on Oct. 22, 2023.
Emerson was catching a ride home from Everett, Wash., to San Francisco. Because the flight was full, he was given the cockpit jumpseat of an Embraer 175 jet operated by Horizon Airlines.
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