JC

The New York Post ran another curious story yesterday headlined, Alaska Airlines pilot who tried to shut off engines mid-flight had a ‘mental breakdown’: passenger. This one is admittedly pretty strange.

Off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot Joseph Emerson, 44, was “riding along” in the cockpit’s jump seat on a flight from Everette to San Fransisco on Sunday, cruising at around 35,000 feet, when he suddenly and unexpectedly had some kind of inexplicable “mental breakdown” and leapt for the controls, apparently trying to shut down the engines in mid-flight.

Engines play an important role in safely completing most types of air travel.

In what must have been several very exciting moments in the cockpit, the captain and first officer wrestled with Joe and finally subdued him, then made an emergency landing in Portland, Oregon, where the flight crew finally told the 83 shocked passengers what had happened.

Joe is a married father of two who lives in San Fransisco. He was headed home. When they heard, Joe’s neighbors were shocked and appalled at the news. Joe’s next-door neighbor Karen Yee told the Daily Mail, “It is just really shocking, disturbing news.” She added that “They are excellent neighbors. He is a fantastic father. He plays with the kids all the time. He’s very friendly. He’s just a great guy.”

But now Joe is sitting in jail, charged with a whole bunch of counts of attempted murder, reckless endangerment, and special airplane crimes. Meanwhile, nobody has explained anything or even commented on the fact that nobody has explained anything. It’s a mystery.

It’s not like nobody’s asked the question, though: