HONOLULU — A former flight attendant allegedly masqueraded as a pilot, tricking three U.S. airlines into granting him numerous complimentary flights over a period of four years, according to federal investigators. The method he supposedly used to pull off such a scam, and the fact that airlines failed to uncover it sooner, has left industry experts puzzled.

Dallas Pokornik, a 33-year-old from Toronto, was apprehended in Panama after being charged with wire fraud in a federal court in Hawaii last October. He has since been extradited to the United States, where he entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday. His federal public defender has opted not to comment on the case.

Court records reveal that Pokornik served as a flight attendant with a Toronto-based airline between 2017 and 2019. Afterward, he allegedly used fake employee identification from that airline to secure tickets meant for flight crews on three other carriers. The documents do not clarify why airlines, which prioritize safety, failed to detect these counterfeit credentials.

The indictment refrains from naming the airlines involved but mentions that the affected U.S. carriers are headquartered in Honolulu, Chicago, and Fort Worth, Texas. A representative for Hawaiian Airlines stated that the airline does not comment on ongoing legal matters, while United Airlines and American Airlines did not provide immediate responses to inquiries from The Associated Press.

Toronto-based Porter Airlines issued a statement via email indicating they were “unable to verify any information related to this story.” Meanwhile, Air Canada, headquartered in Montreal with a significant presence in Toronto, reported having no employment records for Pokornik.

Allegations surprise industry experts

John Cox, a retired pilot who now operates an aviation safety consultancy in St. Petersburg, Florida, found the allegations astonishing, given the cross-verification capabilities airlines possess to confirm the employment of crew members wishing to travel with another airline.

Airlines generally rely on databases of active airline employees maintained on third-party websites to check whether someone is actually an employee.

“The only thing I can think is that they did not show him as no longer employed by the airline,” Cox said in a phone interview Wednesday. “Consequently when the checks were made at the gate, he showed up as a valid employee.”

Passenger airlines typically offer such free or steeply discounted standby seats, when available, to their own crew members or those of other carriers – a courtesy that makes the whole industry function better, by getting crew members where they need to go. Employees can also use the perk for their immediate families when flying for leisure. Sometimes employees might sit in one of the “jump seats” with shoulder harnesses in the cockpit or in the cabin, but federal rules prohibit the cockpit jump seats from being used for leisure travel.

How the screening usually works

Crew members who need to travel to another city for work go through airport security by scanning a “known crew member” card linked to a database that has their photo, said Bruce Rodger, an airline pilot who owns an aviation consulting firm. They also present an employee badge and government-issued identification.

Using the known crew member process for leisure travel isn’t allowed, he said.

For leisure travel, crew members can purchase discounted standby tickets or request a jump seat. With a standby ticket, a crew member reaches the gates via normal airport security screening. It’s possible to have a standby ticket but request a jump seat, which allows the employee to fly for free.

The plane’s captain must approve who rides in the cockpit jump seats. Often that’s a licensed pilot but Federal Aviation Administration regulations also allow for others with official reasons to be there like a Defense Department evaluator, an air traffic controller observing, a crew member or a representative of the manufacturer.

In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot riding in the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight said “I’m not OK” 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 that man to time served last November.

Pokornik asked to ride in the cockpit, prosecutors say

U.S. prosecutors said Tuesday that Pokornik requested to sit in the cockpit’s 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 in Honolulu declined to say.

Years ago, the airline industry tightened up the standards for the flight benefits employees receive after the famous case of Frank Abagnale, whose exaggerated 1980 memoir, “Catch Me If You Can,” described posing as a pilot to fly for free, among other cons. His story gained additional fame when Steven Spielberg made it into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002.

Additional restrictions on who can get aboard a plane and inside a cockpit were imposed by the airlines and FAA after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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AP transportation writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska.