Wife of off-duty pilot accused of trying to disrupt a flight’s engines says he ‘never would have knowingly’ hurt anyone

By Jason Kravarik and Cheri Mossburg, CNN

(CNN) — The wife of the off-duty pilot accused of attempting to disable the engines of an Alaska Airlines plane mid-flight says the man she knows would have never tried to knowingly hurt anyone.

“This is not my Joe, this is not any Joe that anybody knows. I don’t know how to explain it but it just wasn’t him,” Sarah Stretch said, speaking briefly with reporters following her husband’s federal court appearance Thursday, in which he waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Joseph D. Emerson, 44, has been charged with interfering with a flight crew, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced Tuesday.

Additionally, he faces dozens of state charges in Oregon, including 83 felony counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and one count of endangering an aircraft, booking records show. He has pleaded not guilty to all state charges.

Authorities say Emerson, an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, attempted to cut fuel to the plane’s engines while the flight was en route from Washington state to San Francisco on Sunday. The quick actions of the aircraft’s captain and first officer kept the engines from completely failing, the airline said. A flight attendant said Emerson made statements including that “he tried to kill everybody,” according to an affidavit.

But his wife says “he never would have done that.”

“He never would have knowingly done any of that,” Stretch said through tears. “That is not the man that I married. That’s not the man that all of these people in this world are coming together to support him, love him.”

Roughly 10 family members and friends attended Thursday’s court hearing, and Emerson’s attorney said some of them included coworkers.

Court documents say Emerson had experienced depression and the recent death of a friend. He said he was having a nervous breakdown and told the flight crew he needed to be subdued, according to a federal criminal complaint.

Stretch acknowledged her husband had been depressed recently, saying, “We’ve all been dealing with a lot of pressures in life.” Emerson’s defense attorney, Ethan Levi, said Emerson had no intention of harming himself or others.

Emerson told investigators he believed he was dreaming and had taken “magic mushrooms” 48 hours before the incident, CNN has previously reported. He also said he had been awake for the last 40 hours, according to a federal court document.

Before Thursday’s hearing, Noah Horst, another defense attorney for Emerson, told CNN his client was “not under the influence of intoxicants when he boarded the flight.”

Levi told reporters Emerson believed he was in a “dream-like state” during the incident, but said “it’s very early in the case.” He did not comment when asked about the mushrooms.

“He wants and I want everyone to know that Mr. Emerson, Joe, did not intend to harm himself or any other person. He was not suicidal nor homicidal during this incident and we hope to provide further details as we learn more.”

Horst, the other attorney, described Emerson as a “caring father, a loving husband, and a skilled aviator who is supported and loved by a vast network of friends, family and colleagues.”

An arraignment on the federal charge of interfering with a flight crew is scheduled for November 22. A detention hearing is expected to be scheduled soon.

Emerson was “removed from service indefinitely and relieved from all duties at Alaska Airlines,” the airline said in a statement earlier this week.

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