Jakarta –
A former flight attendant caused a stir in the aviation world because he got hundreds of free flights by cheating. He pretended to be a pilot and airline worker. It’s like the movie, right?
Reporting from APThursday (22/1/2026) a man named Dallas Pokornik, 33, from Toronto was arrested in Panama last October 2025 and charged with telephone fraud in federal court in Hawaii. Authorities did not specify which airlines he cheated, but he cheated three US airlines over a four-year period.
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According to court documents, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019. For this rogue stunt, he used fake employee identities from the airline to get tickets booked for pilots and flight attendants at three other airlines.
US prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even asked to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit, usually reserved for off-duty pilots. It’s not clear from court documents whether he ever actually climbed in the plane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The indictment does not name any of the airlines involved but says the US airlines are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.
AP also tried to contact several airlines based in America. A Hawaiian Airlines spokesperson said Wednesday that the company does not comment on litigation. Representatives for United Airlines and American Airlines did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press.
One of Canada’s Toronto-based airlines, Porter Airlines, said in an email that it could not verify any information related to this story. Air Canada, which is based in Montreal but has a main hub in Toronto, said it had no record of Pokornik working there.
The accusations against Pokornik are reminiscent of a movie Catch Me If You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio. This film tells the story of Frank Abagnale who disguises himself as a pilot to cheat airlines and get free flights.
(sym/ddn)
