An off-duty pilot who tried to shut down a plane's engines in flight in the United States on Sunday told police he was having a nervous breakdown. The man had eaten psychedelic mushrooms two days earlier and had not slept for 40 hours, he said. He has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, given the number of occupants who could have been victims of a crash.

The incident occurred on a flight from Everett, Washington State to San Francisco, California. The man, who was flying as a passenger in the cockpit, tried "to disrupt the operation of the engines without success," Alaska Airlines said. There was a "credible security threat". However, the pilot and co-pilot responded quickly. The engines never shut down and the flight was safely diverted to Portland, Oregon.

The pilot was taken into custody at the airport. He had recently been medically examined and cleared to fly

Editor's note ... It reminds us of Egyptair 990 and Germanwings 9525 where pilots commited suicide by crashing their aircraft and taking everyone with them...

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* Origin: AVIATION ECHO HQ (2:292/854)