A former Toronto flight attendant for a Canadian airline has pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to wire fraud after being accused of posing as a pilot to get hundreds of free flights.
Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was indicted on Oct. 2, 2025, for wire fraud and arrested in Panama before being extradited to the U.S., the attorney’s office for the District of Hawaii said in a news release Friday.
Court documents showed Pokornik used a fictitious employee identification card between January 2020 and Oct. 28, 2024 to obtain the free flights, the office said.
As part of his guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said Pokornik has agreed to pay restitution to the three U.S.-based airlines. The three airlines have not been identified, but the indictment said they were based in Honolulu, Chicago and Fort Worth, Texas.
“Travel security protocols help keep our citizens and visitors safe, and anyone who breaches those protocols should expect to be brought to justice,” Sorenson said in a news release. “We thank our law enforcement partners at Homeland Security Investigations and abroad for helping us hold this fraudster accountable.”
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The indictment said Pokornik would also request a jump seat in the cockpit — an area typically reserved for off-duty pilots — even though he was not a pilot and did not hold an airman’s certificate.
It was not clear from court documents whether he had ever ridden in a plane’s cockpit.
Pokornik faces up to 20 years in prison, a fine of up to US$250,000 and a term of supervised release.
“Dallas Pokornik’s guilty plea is a testament to the seamless collaboration between HSI Honolulu, the Department of Justice, and our international law enforcement partners. This individual took advantage of travel security protocols for his own benefit, and he will now face the consequences of his actions,” CJ Ammons, Homeland Security Investigations acting special agent in charge, said in a news release.
Pokornik is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 8.
— with files from Global News’ Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press
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