THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Passengers on an Alaska Airlines flight during which an off-duty pilot attempted to shut off the engines sued the airline, claiming that the pilots weren’t carefully screened.
The three passengers who filed the lawsuit said they have been scared to be on a plane since the Oct. 22 flight. On that trip, pilot Joseph David Emerson, who was sitting in a cockpit jump seat, reached for handles that would shut off the engines’ fuel, according to court records. The captain and first officer scuffled with him for about 30 seconds and managed to keep the handles from being pulled all the way.