A MAN pretended to be a flight attendant for years, scamming 120 free flights from 4 airways earlier than he was finally caught.

Tiron Alexander, 35, was convicted of coming into the safe space of an airport underneath false pretenses and wire fraud on June 5, in response to the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Southern District of Florida.

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Prosecutors say that Alexander booked free flights solely accessible to pilots and flight attendants on an airline service’s web site between 2018 and 2024.

The appliance course of required customers to present their employer, date of rent, and badge quantity.

Alexander flew 34 occasions with the airliner, pretending to be a flight attendant, and utilizing bogus employment credentials for seven airways, submitting 30 completely different badge numbers, mentioned prosecutors.

Nonetheless, he nonetheless had to offer his title and date of delivery to get a boarding go.

“That info is how he was finally caught, together with his fraudulently secured flights piling up in Spirit’s log books till it was massive sufficient for the airline to take discover,” learn courtroom paperwork.

“The proof at trial additionally confirmed that Alexander posed as a flight attendant on three different airline carriers,” mentioned the prosecution.

“In the end, Alexander booked greater than 120 free flights by falsely claiming to be a flight attendant.”

Alexander used the flights to ebook journeys to Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and different locations.

The indictment claimed that Alexander had labored for an airline in Dallas since November 2015, however was neither a pilot nor a flight attendant.

On the time of his arrest, Alexander labored for American Airways however had been suspended with out pay for a couple of 12 months.

He utilized to the Alaska Airways pilot academy in 2022 and appeared for flight attendant jobs at Alaska and Delta in 2024.

The Transportation Safety Administration, which investigated the case, mentioned in was pleased with the decision.

“Whereas Alexander was in a position to board flights by fraudulently acquiring a boarding go, he underwent all relevant TSA safety procedures, together with ID verification and bodily screening, and didn’t pose a risk to different airline passengers,” learn the assertion.

“TSA stays devoted to the safety of the flying public and can proceed to assist the prosecution of those that break air journey legal guidelines.”

The utmost sentence for wire fraud is 20 years in jail, in response to the indictment.

The sentence for coming into the safe areas of an airport underneath false pretenses is 10 years.

Every cost carries a most penalty of three years of supervised launch and a high-quality of as much as $250,000.

Alexander’s sentencing is scheduled for August 25.

This is not the primary time a flier tried to attain free flights over an airline, as Frank Abagnale Jr. famously posed as a pilot to get free flights when he was a youngster.

The scheme was portrayed within the movie Catch Me if You Can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Abagnale.

In the meantime, a person in India tried to achieve pilot perks with a faux ID earlier than being arrested in 2019.

A Houston man pleaded responsible to creating faux id playing cards to get free flights on Spirit in 2021.

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