Honolulu
AP
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A former flight attendant accused of posing as a pilot and dealing airline worker fooled three US carriers into giving him a whole bunch of free tickets over a span of 4 years, federal authorities say. But exactly how he is alleged to have executed it — and why the airlines wouldn’t have caught on sooner — has trade insiders scratching their heads.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud fees in federal courtroom in Hawaii final October. He pleaded not responsible Tuesday following his extradition to the United States. His federal public defender declined to debate the case.
According to courtroom paperwork, Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fraudulent worker identification from that provider to acquire tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three different airlines. Court paperwork contained no clarification of why, in an trade targeted on flight and airport security, the airlines wouldn’t have acknowledged the credentials as invalid.
The indictment didn’t establish any of the airlines concerned however mentioned the US carriers are primarily based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas. A spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines mentioned Wednesday the corporate doesn’t touch upon litigation. Representatives for United Airlines and American Airlines didn’t instantly reply to emails from The Associated Press.
One Canadian provider primarily based in Toronto, Porter Airlines, mentioned in an emailed assertion it was “unable to verify any information related to this story.” Air Canada, which is primarily based in Montreal however has a serious hub in Toronto, mentioned it had no file of Pokornik working there.
John Cox, a retired pilot who runs an aviation security agency in St. Petersburg, Florida, known as the allegations stunning, contemplating the cross-checking that airlines are capable of do to confirm the employment of a crew member in search of to fly on one other airline.
Airlines usually depend on databases of energetic airline workers maintained on third-party web sites to test whether or not somebody is really an worker.
“The only thing I can think is that they did not show him as no longer employed by the airline,” Cox mentioned in a cellphone interview Wednesday. “Consequently when the checks were made at the gate, he showed up as a valid employee.”
Passenger airlines usually supply such free or steeply discounted seats, when obtainable, to their very own crew members or these of different carriers — a courtesy that makes the entire trade operate higher, by getting crew members the place they should go. The seats, which may embrace “jump seats” with shoulder harnesses within the cockpit or within the cabin, may also be provided up for leisure journey.
Crew members who have to journey to a different metropolis for work undergo airport safety by scanning a “known crew member” card linked to a database that has their photograph, mentioned Bruce Rodger, an airline pilot who owns an aviation consulting agency. They additionally current an worker badge and government-issued identification.
Using the recognized crew member course of for leisure journey isn’t allowed, he mentioned.
For leisure journey, crew members should buy discounted standby tickets or request a leap seat. With a standby ticket, a crew member reaches the gates through regular airport safety screening. It’s doable to have a standby ticket however request a leap seat, which permits the worker to fly for free.
A leap seat for an off-duty pilot within the cockpit should be authorised by the airplane’s captain. The pilot using within the leap seat should present the captain a pilot’s license and medical clearance, Rodger mentioned. Those paperwork aren’t required for flight attendants using in a leap seat in the primary cabin, he mentioned.
In 2023, an off-duty airline pilot using within the cockpit of a Horizon Air flight mentioned “I’m not OK” simply earlier than trying to cut the engines midflight. That pilot, Joseph Emerson, later instructed police he had been fighting despair. A federal choose sentenced that man to time served final November.
US prosecutors mentioned Tuesday that Pokornik requested to take a seat within the cockpit’s leap seat — usually reserved for off-duty pilots. It was not clear from courtroom paperwork whether or not he ever really rode in a airplane’s cockpit, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Honolulu declined to say.
Years in the past, the airline trade tightened up the requirements for the flight advantages workers obtain after the well-known case of Frank Abagnale, whose exaggerated 1980 memoir, “Catch Me If You Can,” described posing as a pilot to fly for free, amongst different cons. His story gained further fame when Steven Spielberg made it into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002.
Additional restrictions on who can get aboard a airplane and inside a cockpit had been imposed by the airlines and FAA after the September 11, 2001, terrorist assaults.