HONOLULU: A Canadian man posed as a industrial pilot and as a working flight attendant to acquire lots of of free flights from US airways, authorities mentioned.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud expenses in federal court docket in Hawaii final October. He pleaded not responsible Tuesday (Jan 20) following his extradition to the US.
Based on court docket paperwork, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used faux worker identification from that provider to acquire tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three different airways.
US prosecutors mentioned Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit down in an additional seat within the cockpit – the “leap seat” – usually reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from court docket paperwork whether or not he ever really rode in a aircraft’s cockpit, and the US Lawyer’s Workplace declined to say.
The indictment didn’t establish the airways that permit him fly free of charge 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 – didn’t instantly reply to emails from The Related Press in search of remark.
The indictment additionally doesn’t establish the Toronto-based airline. Air Canada, with headquarters in Montreal and a hub in Toronto, mentioned in an e mail Wednesday it had no document of anybody named Pokornik having labored on the provider.
The scheme lasted 4 years, the US prosecutors in Hawaii mentioned.
A US Justice of the Peace choose on Tuesday ordered Pokornik to stay in custody. His federal defender declined to remark.
The allegations in opposition to Pokornik are harking back 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.
In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot using within the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight mentioned “I’m not OK” simply earlier than attempting to chop the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later instructed police he had been combating despair. A federal choose sentenced that man to time served final November.
