A FORMER flight attendant impersonated a pilot to hop on hundreds of free flights, a court has heard.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, who worked for a Toronto-based company between 2017 and 2019, allegedly used a fake employee ID card to jet-set across three rival airlines.
The Canadian was arrested in Panama on January 19 and extradited to the United States where he was indicted on October 2.
There, he was charged with two counts of wire fraud.
Investigators accused Pokornik of wielding a fake Air Canada employee badge and lying about job description.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
According to court documents, Pokornik would routinely ask staff to seat him in the aircraft’s jump seat – a spot typically reserved for off-duty pilots and inspectors.
Investigators also believe that the Canadian’s familiarity with airline protocol helped him to evade suspicion.
Pokornik’s scheme lasted four years before he was finally rumbled for his alleged crimes, US prosecutors added.
If found guilty, he could be jailed for 20 years and slapped with an eyewatering $250,000 fine.
He has enlisted Craig Jerome from the Office of the Hawaii Federal Public Defender as his attorney.
Pokornik’s alleged exploits have been compared to those in the hit movie Catch Me If You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
It tells the story of fraudster Frank Abagnale, who pretends to be a pilot to make money and travel for free.
Potornik uploaded a string of images on his Facebook page documenting his foreign jaunts in New York, London, Thailand, Los Angeles and Mexico, The Telegraph reported.
In one video, he could be seen posing with a drink inside what appeared to be a private carrier.
“Many of my friends are married. Many of my friends are having kids,” he wrote in a seperate post.
“I’m over here trying to avoid checking my bag and hoping for a window seat.”
US assistant Attorney Michael Nammar, in court documents filed to United States District Court for the District of Hawaii on Tuesday, wrote: “[The] defendant is a Canadian citizen with no ties to the United States that was extradited from Panama.
“The investigation has established that the defendant, over the course of four years, falsely claimed he was an airline pilot and presented a fictitious employee identification card to obtain hundreds of flights at no cost.”
