A former flight attendant posed as a pilot and received hundreds of free flights, US authorities say

Key Highlights

• 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. U. S.
• prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik even requested to sit in an extra seat in the cockpit — the “jump seat” — typically reserved for off-duty pilots.
• It was not clear from court documents whether he ever actually rode in a plane’s cockpit, and the U. S.
• Attorney’s Office declined to say. The indictment did not identify the airlines except to say they are based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.