The San Francisco-bound Horizon Air flight on Sunday diverted to Portland,Oregon,where it was met by officers from the Port of Portland,who took Emerson into custody. He was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Seattle-based Alaska Airlines,which owns Horizon,a regional carrier,did not name Emerson,butsaid on Monday that the threat was posed by one of its pilots who was off duty but authorised to occupy the cockpit jump seat.
The airline said in a statement that the captain and co-pilot “quickly responded,engine power was not lost and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.” Alaska said no weapons were involved.
Sunday’s incident occurred on a Horizon Air Embraer 175 carrying 80 passengers,some of them lap children,and four crew members. The plane left Everett,Washington,at 5.23pm local time and landed in Portland an hour later.
One of the pilots told air traffic controllers that the man who posed the threat had been removed from the cockpit.
“We’ve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. And he — doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back right now,and I think he’s subdued,” one of the pilots said on audio captured by LiveATC.net. “Other than that,we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”