For a man from Canada, the dream of being a pilot or flight attendant has come to an end after four years of ‘flying’ free with fake credentials as airline employees.
Dallas Pokornik, a 33-year-old man from Canada, invented a way to ‘fly’ without the need to purchase tickets and he did this by using a ‘movie-like’ scenario. He was said to have used stolen flight attendant and pilot identification cards to gain access to the airline tickets reserved for airline personnel.
For hundreds of flights over a number of years, Pokornik travelled throughout North America without ever paying for a flight ticket.
Pokornik had worked for a Toronto-based airline as a flight attendant between 2017 and 2019, giving him a first-hand perspective on what was possible with respect to airline ticketing, airline policies, and how crew travel benefits worked.
According to U.S. Federal prosecutors, Pokornik gained access to crew member airline ticketing privileges at three different airlines by using an airline employee identification card that he created using his prior employment with a Toronto airline. These tickets can only be issued to the airline’s pilots and cabin crew members and cannot be issued to the general public.
It is even more astonishing that he sought a runway seat where pilots sometimes fly together, who are not on duty. While the court documents do not state that he actually made use of this seat, the very fact that he requested to do so brought about a lot of concern about what he could have done.
His legal problems eventually caught up with him while he was in Panama. He was arrested and extradited back to the United States. He was charged with committing wire fraud in a federal court in Hawaii in October of 2025. He returned to the United States in January of 2026 and entered his not guilty plea.
It is interesting to note that while many of the airline companies that believe he used their airline to travel across the United States are not named in the court documents, Hawaii, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas are the three cities mentioned as hubs for airline companies in the court documents. It is reasonable to assume that Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines are most likely the three airlines involved; however, to date, none of these airline companies have made a public statement.
What about the airline that he claimed to work for while in Toronto? Air Canada has confirmed that they do not show he has ever worked there.
Prosecutors believe this scam went undetected for nearly four years, which is very troubling considering this indicates there was a failure of security checks, employee verification and internal systems for four years – far too long to be unimpeded.
The ability to fly as a crew member at airports has many implications for safety as well as increased access to free flights for those who are able.
Anyone who has seen the film ‘Catch Me If You Can’, in which actor Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, a con man who posed as a pilot, may recognize elements of this example of “airport security” at play. However, while this example may be reminiscent of Abagnale’s exploits, the events occurred within the context of today’s aviation and its security procedures.
The year 2023 saw a significant incident involving a Horizon Air off-duty pilot attempting to cut off the engines of a Horizon Air aircraft while aboard the aircraft as part of his seat assignment. He claimed he was struggling with some mental health issues, and he received a sentence based on time served only. Additionally, in a separate incident that did not relate to Horizon Air, in 2023, a woman in Indonesia attempted to act as a Batik Air flight attendant but was caught because her flight attendant uniform varied from the approved sample. No criminal charges were filed against her.
There is only one thing point when you combine the above statements: airline uniforms and identification badges (ID) are not simply costumes; they are trust markers. Once the trust is compromised, even “innocent” activities can quickly lead to serious consequences.
While free flights may seem like a pleasant invitation to fly, impersonation of a flight crew can lead to immediate entrance into a federal court. Unlike the movies, there will be no happy ending at the gate.
