PORTLAND, Ore. - A former Alaska Airlines pilot who trued to cut the engines of a passenger flight in 2023 while riding off-duty in the cockpit will serve no additional prison time, a federal judge ruled Monday.

‘Pilots are not perfect’

What they're saying:

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Baggio sentenced Joseph Emerson to time served and supervised release for three years at a hearing in Portland, Oregon. Federal prosecutors had asked for one year in prison, while his attorneys had sought probation.

"Pilots are not perfect. They are human," she said. "They are people and all people need help sometimes."

Emerson was subdued by the flight crew after trying to cut the engines of a Horizon Air flight from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco on Oct. 22, 2023, while he was riding in

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