She defrauded three airline companies and obtained hundreds of free tickets, the former flight attendant is arrested in the USA

A former flight attendant is accused of defrauding three U.S. airline companies by posing as a pilot and airline employee, obtaining hundreds of free tickets over a four-year period, according to U.S. federal authorities.

Dallas Pokornik, 33, from Toronto, was arrested in Panama and extradited to the United States after being indicted on wire fraud charges in a federal court in Hawaii in October last year. She pleaded not guilty on January 20. Her federal public defender declined to comment on the case.

According to court documents, Pokornik worked as a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019. She is then alleged to have used fake employee identification to book tickets intended for pilots and flight attendants with three other U.S. airlines.

Court documents do not explain why, in an industry known for high security standards, the airlines failed to detect earlier that the credentials were invalid, a fact that has raised questions among aviation industry professionals.

The indictment does not name the airlines, but says they are headquartered in Honolulu, Chicago, and Fort Worth, Texas. A spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines said the company does not comment on legal matters, while United Airlines and American Airlines did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Toronto-based Porter Airlines said it was unable to verify information related to the case, while Air Canada stated that it had no records indicating that Pokornik had ever worked for the company.

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