Transcripts For KGO ABC7 20240703 : vimarsana.com

KGO ABC7 July 3, 2024

Thats a trusted person at the airline. Im just happy to be home, happy to be safe, and im happy they handled it really well. An Emergency Landing for a flight bound for San Francisco after an off duty pilot who was riding as a passenger in the cockpit allegedly tried to shut down the engines. Good evening. Thank you for joining us for this special edition of abc7 news at nine. Im dan ashley and im ama daetz. The horizon air flight left everett, washington, just north of seattle, bound for San Francisco yesterday evening. But the plane was diverted to portland where the off duty pilot was taken off the plane and arrested accused of trying to shut off the engines. That off duty pilot has now been identified as 44 year old Joseph David Emerson from Pleasant Hill. Were not showing his photo because he has not been charged in court yet. He works for Alaska Airlines, which owns horizon air, which is why he was authorized to sit in the cockpit in the flight deck jump seat while its still not entirely clear what happened, Alaska Airlines says emerson attempted to shut off the engines by pulling the fire extinguisher handles of the engines. Now, fortunately, the captain and first officer responded quickly. The plane was then able to safely land in portland with no one injured. Heres a recording of the exchange on board between the pilot and air Traffic Controllers shortly after emerson was subdued by the flight crew and handcuffed to a seat. Okay, i just give you a heads up. Weve got the guy that tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit. Um and he doesnt sound like hes causing any issue in the back right now. I think hes subdued. Yeah, we one Law Enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and park horizon 2059 turn right heading 100. When you have a moment, what is your gate that youre parking at . And do you need a local Law Enforcement to show up . Yes, we need Law Enforcement 100. And we dont know the gate yet. 2059. Roger, when you find out, let me know, please. Yes, we do. 2059 what is the threat level . The threat the threat is now in the back of the airplane. So were reduced on the threat level. Were going to check in with the Flight Attendants and make sure everything is running smoothly. But it seems like hes settled down as soon as he after one moment of going a little bit overboard, we put him back. So 2059, roger, just because we can report this, what was the highest level that occurred . It escalated to a four for events. But hes out of the cockpit now. Now, when the plane landed in portland, emerson was arrested and booked into jail. He will be arraigned in Court Tomorrow when hell formally hear the charges against him. Heres a look at the charges hes facing. 83 counts of attempted murder in the first degree, 83 counts of recklessly endanger another person. Those are one count for each person on the flight, as you can gather. And one count of endangering an aircraft in the first degree. This comes as were learning more about Joseph David Emerson, abc seven news iteam reporter dan noyes has details on his background and tells us there are virtually no warning signs we could find that led to that close call in the cockpit. Joseph David Emerson is 44 years old. The jail booking sheet says hes six foot one, 210 pounds and that he was arrested by the port of Portland Police at 411. This morning. A comprehensive records search shows no criminal record, no tax liens, no divorce proceedings. He was born in Washington State and moved to Contra Costa County in 2008. He became a pilot for Alaska Airlines in april 2016. He has a wife who teaches at Peralta Community college and two young sons. He owns his home in Pleasant Hill today, neighbors were struggling to make sense of what happened. Hes never had a negative statement about his job or anything like that. So yeah, hes very understanding and well of other people. And, you know, we have a grandson with special needs and hes very good to him. So we just cant imagine him doing anything that would hurt anyone. He was active on twitter now ex during the pandemic discussing Alaska Airlines pilots being furloughed. He wrote in december 2020 the future of air travel remains highly depressed, immediate relief for the Airline Industry is critical, and one of his facebook posts, especially struck me. I tell my son every night, every day is another gift of this great adventure called life. Good, bad, happy, sad. All are equally important for the iteam. Dan noyes abc7 news. All right, so what about the passengers we know the flight was full and now were hearing from some of them who say the crew handled the emergency so calmly that they had actually no idea how serious things really were. Yeah. Abc seven News Reporter suzanne von spoke with one couple who had two very different experiences of the incident. Im just happy to be home, happy to be safe and im happy they handled it really well. Alex wood is one of the passengers on Alaska Airlines flight 2059. So relieved to be safe. He and his girlfriend, aubrey gavello, were returning home from a friends wedding when police say an off duty pilot inside the cockpit attempted to disable the aircraft engines. Neither wood or gavello ever saw or heard any commotion. Did you hear anything at all that raised red flags . Nothing. Nothing. Until the Flight Attendants announcement that said we had a situation we needed to prepare for landing. My boyfriend was up in the front so we werent sitting together and he slept through the whole thing. So that tells you how calm it was, gavello says the announcement was made about an hour into the flight. Then she saw Flight Attendants walk the suspect past her. I saw zip ties during which was confusing because they had told us it was a medical emergency, gavello says. At the back of the plane, a Flight Attendant tried to calm the suspect, telling him, youre going to be okay. What was his demeanor . Yeah, he was tall. Well, kempt had a lanyard well, like shirt tucked in, looked well put together. This is what it looked like after the Emergency Landing in portland. We landed and then about Ten Police Officers armed came on, walked straight to the back of the plane where i was sitting and detained him. And walked the gentleman off the plane. He looked dead in the eyes, almost. It was almost like he had a psychotic breakdown and then the Flight Attendant got back on and told us he had a mental breakdown. When gavello both say this experience has raised some big concerns with all love and respect for people dealing with Mental Health issues, its a scary moment for all of us and hope he gets the help he needs. But i also dont think its acceptable for a pilot to do this and just to be able to hop on the plane with this going on. Wood says he thinks one of the pilots flying the plane and hes grateful for what the crew did. Props to them for being able to keep us safe. Suzanne phan abc seven news one more note on this here. The Airline Pilots association is continuously be evaluated through their careers. Thats what the Pilots Association says about its pilots, adding that while the investigate is just getting underway, its important to remember that the Airline Pilot profession in north america is one of the most highly vetted and scrutiny ized careers. We wanted to learn how exactly Something Like this could have happened from a technical aspect. So abc seven news south bay reporter Dustin Dorsey got inside a cockpit with an aviation expert with just a pull of a lever and a press of a button. Power and fuel can be cut to a planes engine by fire extinguishers. Thats what was allegedly attempted by off duty pilot joe emerson in an embraer 175 cockpit during a flight from everett, washington, to San Francisco. A look inside a similar plane could give us a look at how this could have gone down. Im in the captains spot on the boeing 737. Again, a slightly different aircraft, Hiller Aviation Museum ceo john welty showed us how things look in this plane. These are the emergency controls for the number one and number two engines, only to be used in case of a fire. What i would do is i would pull this lever up, which is hard to do. Ive got to push the safety button down first so it cant happen by accident. But when i pull this up, this disconnects the fuel flow going to the engine. This also disconnects the hydraulics and the electrical power turning the lever would start the fire extinguishers and if done for both engines, this would leave the plane with no way to fly. Normally. In the embraer 175 cockpit, these fire extinguisher controls are up top within easy access to engage for a pilot sitting in the jump seat of the cockpit right between the two pilots, exactly where emerson was said to be. The flight was full, so all the seats were occupied, but the jump seat was available and there are a number of Airline Personnel who can sit up in the jump seats of the cockpit. That includes off duty pilots often flying to destinations where they will board a plane. They will pilot themselves. Emerson was scheduled to be on a flight crew in San Francisco monday. Thankfully, the control of the aircraft was never lost and the crew was able to divert to portland the Mental Health of emerson has been brought into question and welty says Airline Pilots are required to undergo medical exams every six months. A very important part of that examination is reviewing any Mental Illness issues, any medications that might affect cognitive functioning. Any psychic logical issues that may have arisen in the six month interval since the last first class medical exam. Questions we may learn answers to in the future as emerson now faces 83 counts of attempted murder in san carlos. Dustin dawsey, abc seven news and earlier today on our 3 p. M. Program, getting answers, abc seven news anchor kristen sze spoke with abc news aviation analyst john nance. He put things into perspective about how rare these incidents are and how the crew managed the threat. The captain and the first officer took care of the problem and there were no weapons involved. Thank. Thanks to our ability with tsa to screen them out. So i think you have to look at it from that point of view, 32 000 flights a day. This sort of thing has never happened except in the last probably 30 years. One time. And that last time it was a fedex cargo flight in 1994, which was also trying to fly to the bay area, san jose airport, in fact, jump seating fedex Flight Engineer who was facing termination tried to bludgeon the crew of three to death with a hammer after takeoff. Auburn calloway wanted to crash the plane so his family could cash in on a Life Insurance policy. Calloway failed. Thank goodness the crew survived and landed the jets safely back in memphis. But with life threatening injuries. Calloway is serving a life sentence in a federal prison. Coming up, the latest on the war in the middle east and the latest on the release of the two hostages who were held by hamas. Plus, the impact the war could have on oil prices and what that means for gas here at home. And then at 930, were learning new details about a weekend shooting at a house party in oakley that claimed the life of a 16 Year Old High School student and three others were injured. Im meteorologist sandy patel. Temperatures coming up today. Ill let you know how long it will remain mild before we see some changes around here coming up. When abc7 news at time to win is running out in our prize packed kick off the savings Monopoly Game hurry in to play for your chance at over 25 million in prizes and money saving offers like this, and this, or even this. Plus, you still have a shot at up to 100,000 in guaranteed prize money. Stop in while you can still win and shop your Favorite Brands sporting the kick off the savings monopoly tag for unlimited bonus game tickets at lucky is it possible my network could take my business sporting the kick off the savings monopoly tag to the next level . It is with comcast business. Powering all your devices with gigspeed wifi. And you get fast downloads and uploads. Pick it up pick it up oh we got this because its powered by the next generation 10g network. More speed for your business . Its not just possible. Its happening. Get started for 59. 99 a month for 12 months. Plus, ask how to get an 800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. Comcast business, powering possibilities. Expanding into more areas. Israel is planning a Ground Invasion to start in the coming days. Two elderly israeli hostages have been released. The death toll of palestinians rising to 5000 now with limited life resources. Abc News Reporter melissa adan has the details. Video from hamas shows two israeli hostages being turned over to the red cross. Israeli Officials Say tonight 85 year old yahya and 79 year old nurit cooper are now back home. Both women were taken away in ambulances. Then an Israeli Military helicopter landing at a hospital in tel aviv early Tuesday Morning local time where theyre receiving care. Grandson speaking to israeli press, calling his grandmother and his grandfather, who was still believed to be held captive by hamas. Human rights activist states they are really amazing people who work for peace, who work for everything, which is good in this world. The women abducted from their homes along with their husbands during the october seventh terrorist attack by hamas, targeting communities near the gaza strip. The us says efforts are ongoing to secure the release of ten americans and about 200 other hostages still being held following fridays release of two american hostages. This amid a possible israeli Ground Invasion in gaza. Israel claiming to have struck 300 targets in gaza within 24 hours, promised a multilateral operation in the air, ground and sea. The hamas run Gaza Health Ministry saying more than 400 palestinian have been killed within the past 24 hours. At egypts rafah border crossing, a relatively small amount of aid, just 20 trucks getting into gaza for the third day. Hundreds more trucks filled with badly needed water, food and medicine are waiting to be cleared, but no fuel has been allowed in for fear it will get to hamas. Melissa dann, abc news, los angeles. Global oil supply rise could be tightened as the war rages on in the oil rich region. This could be bad news at the pumps. This winter. Neither israel nor gaza act as major oil suppliers, but this conflict could soon spread into other important regions, especially if iran gets involved. Iran is a Major Oil Producer and if they embargo oil or cut exports, that could weigh more heavily on oil prices. Brant crude oil prices have fluctuated, but that hasnt reached the gas pumps because of seasonal trends so far, gasoline prices are staying lower due to cheaper winter gas blends and decreased demand. This week, the National Average could fall to its lowest level since march. Governor newsom continues his six day trip to china. Today, newsom spoke at the university of hong kong. The governor assured china that california will continue to be a partner on climate issues no matter who is the american president. Californias goal of achieving Carbon Neutrality is by 2045. Thats five years earlier than hong kong, newsom says california is looking to meet that goal by eliminating emissions from vehicles and trucks. So if were going to get serious about cleaning up our environment half of that is just in the transportation space and thats why we went big and we focusing so much time and energy in that space over the next five days. The governor will visit a chinese city with an all electric vehicle fleet tour, an offshore wind energy facility, and see teslas shanghai manufacturing plant. All right. On to our weather now. Yeah, right. Its back to work on a great way to start. Meteorologist cindy patel is here with the forecast. Andrew. Yeah, it was a Beautiful Day today and if you liked it, dan and anna, were going to keep it going tomorrow. So the only thing is, tomorrow morning i would grab a sweater or a jacket. Its going to be a cool start. Right now i want to show you whats happening in the atmosphere. We do have an area of High Pressure that is building in, and thats why we enjoyed some sunshine today. And those temperatures came up. We do have a lot of cloud cover that is still hanging around the bay area at this hour. And we have some patchy fog down below. I do want to take you back i

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