A case reminiscent of Leonardo Di Caprio in Catch Me If You Can. A former flight attendant is accused of fraud after years of traveling for free
A former flight attendant accused of posing as a pilot and airline employee tricked three U.S. carriers into giving him hundreds of free tickets over four years, according to federal authorities. But exactly how he would have done it – and why airlines didn’t realize it sooner – is puzzling industry experts.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being charged last October with wire fraud offenses in federal court in Hawaii. He declared himself innocent after extradition to the United States. His federal public defender declined to comment on the case.
According to court documents, Pokornik worked as a flight attendant at a Toronto-based airline between 2017 and 2019. He then allegedly used fraudulent employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants at three other airlines. The court documents do not explain why, in an industry highly focused on aviation and airport security, the companies did not detect that the credentials were invalid.
The indictment does not identify the companies involved, but states that the US carriers are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. A spokeswoman for Hawaiian Airlines said the company does not comment on lawsuits. Representatives for United Airlines and American Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for clarification from The Associated Press.
A Canadian carrier based in Toronto, Porter Airlines, said in an emailed statement that it was unable to “confirm any information related to this story.” Air Canada, headquartered in Montreal and with one of its main operations centers in Toronto, said it did not have any record of Pokornik as an employee.
Accusations surprise industry experts
John Cox, a retired pilot responsible for an aviation security company in St. Petersburg, Florida, finds the accusations surprising, considering the cross-checking mechanisms that airlines have in place to confirm the employment status of a crew member who intends to fly on another carrier.
In general, companies use databases of active employees, maintained on external platforms, to check whether someone is actually an airline worker.
“The only explanation I can find is that he did not appear to have stopped working for the company,” says Cox, speaking over the phone. “So, when checks were made at the boarding gate, it appeared as a valid employee.”
Airlines tend to provide free or heavily discounted seats, when available, to their own crew members or those of other carriers – a common practice in the sector, which makes it easier for teams to travel. These places include the so-called jump seatsadditional seats in the cockpit or cabin, and can also be used for leisure travel.
How the control normally works
Crew members who need to travel to another city on duty go through security checks with a professional identification card, linked to a database with their photograph, explains Bruce Rodger, pilot and aviation consultant. They also present an official identification document.
The use of this process for leisure travel is not permitted, he points out.
For personal travel, crew members can purchase discounted tickets, valid only if there are seats available on the flight, or request a jump seat. With these tickets, you go through normal airport security. Even if you have a ticket of this type, it is possible to request one jump seatwhich allows you to travel for free.
A jump seat in the cockpit, reserved for an off-duty pilot, must be authorized by the aircraft commander. The pilot who occupies this position must present his pilot’s license and medical certificate to the captain, explains Rodger. These documents are not required for flight attendants occupying a jump seat in the passenger cabin.
In 2023, an off-duty pilot in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not well” shortly before mid-flight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, would later tell police that he was dealing with depression. A federal judge sentenced him last November to .
Pokornik will have asked to travel in the cockpit
US prosecutors say Pokornik asked to occupy the jump seat in the cockpit – normally reserved for off-duty pilots. It is unclear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in the cockpit, and the U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu declined to provide further clarification.
For years, the aviation industry has tightened access criteria for employee travel benefits in the wake of the famous case of Frank Abagnale, who in his campy 1980 memoir Catch Me If You Can described how he posed as a pilot to fly for free, among other schemes. The story gained even more notoriety when Steven Spielberg adapted it for the cinema, in 2002, in the film Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed additional restrictions on who can board a plane and access the cockpit.
