HONOLULU — A man who formerly was a flight attendant for a Canadian airline is accused of posing as a commercial pilot and obtaining hundreds of free flights, prosecutors said.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Hawaii, Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was indicted on Oct. 2, 2025, for wire fraud.

Pokornik was arrested and extradited from Panama to the United States to face the charges, KHON reported.

He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, prosecutors said. They did not reveal the name of the airline. Hawaiian Airlines, United Airlines and American Airlines are all based in Toronto, but declined comment to the AP.

According to court documents, Pokornik claimed during a four-year period that he was an airline pilot and gave a “fictitious employee identification card” on three different airlines. That allowed him to receive “hundreds” of free flights.

Pokornik even requested a jump seat in the cockpit of a plane, prosecutors said. That request was made even though Pokornik was not a pilot and did not have an airman’s certificate.

It was unclear whether Pokornik’s request to sit in the cockpit was honored, CBS News reported.

If convicted, Pokornik faces up to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. He also could be fined up to $250,000, and be sanctioned to a term of supervised release.

Pokornik’s alleged activities are similar to those found in the 2002 movie “Catch Me If You Can,” which tells the story of a con man posing as a pilot, doctor and attorney. One of his schemes involved defrauding an airline to obtain free flights. The film starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken.

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