Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October.<\/b>
\nA former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from US airlines, authorities said.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in federal court in Hawaii last October.
He pleaded not guilty Tuesday following his extradition.
According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fake employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three other airlines.
US prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit \u2014 the \u201cjump seat\u201d \u2014 typically reserved for off-duty pilots.
It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane\u2019s cockpit, and the US Attorney\u2019s Office declined to say.
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 \u2014 which are respectively based in those cities \u2014 didn\u2019t 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 US prosecutors in Hawaii said.
A US 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 \u201cI\u2019m not OK\u201d 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 \u201cCatch Me If You Can,\u201d the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio that tells the story of Frank Abagnale posing as a pilot to defraud an airline and obtain free flights.<\/p>\n