I’m just glad there were two pilots in the cockpit when Emerson snapped. Following Germanwings Flight 9525, the two-pilots-in-the-cockpit-at-all-times rule became mandatory for most airlines (I think for all that operate in the United States, anyway). As for help-seeking on the part of air crew, Andreas Lubitz did seek help for his emotional problems, but kept his treatment secret from his airline– so the issue of medical confidentiality is still with us, AFAIK.

True jump seat story from my own family: I have a cousin who recently retired as a senior captain with American Airlines. When he was fresh out of a four-year college bachelor’s degree program in aviation (he didn’t take the military route), he was hired by a commuter airline for further training. At that time the trainee pilots sat in the cockpit jump seat to observe the captain and first officer– I don’t know whether this training pattern still holds. This particular airline used the smaller 20- or 25-seat planes that had only a small curtain– not a door– separating the passenger cabin and the flight deck (this was in the late 1970s). My cousin was sitting in the jump seat on a flight from Philly to Harrisburg when a drunken passenger, angered by the flight attendant’s refusal to serve him another drink, pushed through the curtain into the cockpit and decked the first officer. My cousin, who is about 6’3″, stood up and threw the drunk backward into the passenger cabin, where several passengers promptly sat on him. Meanwhile the captain was very calmly contacting Harrisburg and asking the plane to be met by LEOs when it touched down. My cousin said there was a reception committee of four very husky and very irritated state troopers waiting to take the drunk off the plane.

It’s easy to say that all worked out well in this case, but I’ve often wondered what might have happened if my cousin hadn’t been in the jump seat when the alcoholic punched out the first officer. I’m not sure that the captain could have flown the plane, monitored the instruments, and dealt effectively with the drunk all at the same time.

A strange occurrence. This guy has ruined his life because he didn’t avail himself of the employee services available to all airline pilots.

Mental health problems aren’t addressed well in this country. If they were we wouldn’t have so many homeless people. At the very least most people should be aware that it is not shameful to ask for help when you need it.

Why would he take a hallucinogenic mushroom? Hoping to relieve his depression? Maybe. Why have states made these sorts of drugs legal? It.Makes.No.Sense.

Thank goodness he wasn’t able to do any real damage.

https://katu.com/news/local/pilot-who-tried-to-shut-off-engines-of-plane-mid-flight-was-high-on-psychedelic-mushrooms-psilocybin-arrest-doc-says-alaska-horizon-portland-international-airport

Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde? Or shades of The Exorcist?

I can’t say that in my dissolute youth after taking psylocybin mushrooms I ever experienced that sort of dual personality…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze_WIE3Yokg

Please see my comment just above yours.