Former flight attendant accused of posing as pilot to get hundreds of free flights

A former Canadian flight attendant has been accused of fraudulently obtaining hundreds of free flights from US airlines by posing as both a commercial pilot and a serving cabin crew member, authorities have revealed.

Dallas Pokornik, 33, from Toronto, was apprehended in Panama following his indictment on wire fraud charges in a Hawaiian federal court last October. He entered a plea of not guilty on Tuesday, subsequent to his extradition.

Court documents allege that Mr Pokornik, who worked as a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline between 2017 and 2019, subsequently used counterfeit employee identification from that company. This allowed him to secure tickets, typically reserved for airline staff, on three different carriers.

U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit — the “jump seat” — typically reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say.

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The indictment did not identify the airlines except to say they are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. Representatives for Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines — which are respectively based in those cities — didn’t immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.

Air Canada, which is based in Toronto, also did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The scheme lasted four years, the U.S. prosecutors in Hawaii said.

A U.S. magistrate judge on Tuesday ordered Pokornik to remain in custody. His federal defender declined to comment.

In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” just before trying to cut the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later told police he had been struggling with depression.

A federal judge sentenced him to time served last November.

The allegations against Pokornik are reminiscent of “Catch Me If You Can,” the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that tells the story of Frank Abagnale posing as a pilot to defraud an airline and obtain free flights.