Honolulu — A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a business pilot and as a present flight attendant to acquire a whole bunch of free flights from U.S. airways, authorities stated.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud prices in federal court docket in Hawaii final October. He pleaded not responsible Tuesday following his extradition.
If convicted, Pokornik faces as much as 20 years in jail, a high-quality of as much as $250,000, plus a time period of supervised launch, the Justice Division stated.
In response to court docket paperwork, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used faux worker identification from that service to acquire tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three different airways.
U.S. prosecutors stated Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit down in an additional seat within the cockpit – the “soar seat” – usually reserved for off-duty pilots. It wasn’t clear from court docket paperwork whether or not he ever truly rode in a aircraft’s cockpit, and the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace declined to say.
The indictment did not determine the airways besides to say they’re based mostly in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Value, Texas. Representatives for Hawaiian Airways, United Airways and American Airways – that are respectively based mostly in these cities – did not instantly reply to emails from The Related Press in search of remark.
Air Canada, which relies in Toronto, additionally did not reply to an electronic mail in search of remark.
The scheme lasted 4 years, the U.S. prosecutors in Hawaii stated.
A U.S. Justice of the Peace decide on Tuesday ordered Pokornik to stay in custody. His federal defender declined to remark.
In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot driving within the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight stated “I am not OK” simply earlier than making an attempt to chop the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later advised police he’d been battling despair.
A federal decide sentenced him to time served final November.
The allegations in opposition to Pokornik are paying homage to “Catch Me If You Can,” the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio that tells the story of Frank Abagnale posing as a pilot to defraud an airline and procure free flights.
