A fraudster posing as a flight attendant sold tickets for over 120 trips.
A 35-year-old man was found guilty last week of using his identity as a flight attendant to obtain cheap airline tickets on numerous occasions since 2018.
A federal jury found Tiron Alexander guilty of wire fraud and falsely entering a restricted area of an airport.
Authorities claim that he exploited airline regulations that permit pilots and flight attendants on rival airlines to travel for free as “non-revenue” passengers.
He booked over 120 flights to Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and other places fraudulently, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Spirit operated thirty-four of those flights.
He provided approximately 30 badge numbers and dates of hire to book flights using a website that was only accessible by flight crew, according to the prosecutors’ news release.
He claimed to work for seven airlines. To receive a boarding pass, he still needed to provide his name and birthdate.
He was eventually apprehended using that information, according to court filings, as his illegally procured flights accumulated in Spirit’s log books until they were significant enough for the airline to detect.
Alexander wasn’t arrested until February, even though a federal grand jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida handed down the indictment in October.
Alexander’s arrest occurred while he attempted to board a plane from San Francisco to Australia, according to court documents.
According to court documents, Alexander most recently worked as a customer support representative for American Airlines, although at the time of his arrest, he had been suspended without pay for many months.
According to the documents, he had a long-standing interest in aviation throughout his work history. Between 2013 and 2015, he was employed as a flight attendant for two minor airlines.
He has since attempted to fly again, applying for flight attendant positions at Alaska and Delta in 2024 and to the Alaska Airlines pilot academy in 2022.
The prosecution chose not to comment, and letters asking for comment on Wednesday were not answered by Alexander’s public defenders.
In addition to one count of accessing a secure airport area under false pretenses, which has a possible term of 10 years in prison, Alexander was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years. There is also a $250,000 maximum penalties for each count.
According to the Justice Department’s press statement, his sentencing is set for August.
An airline had previously detected the flyer.
To get free flights as a youngster, con artist Frank Abagnale Jr. claimed to have impersonated a pilot. Leonardo DiCaprio played him in the film “Catch Me if You Can.”
In 2019, authorities detained a man in India who attempted to use a forged ID to obtain his own pilot benefits. Additionally, in 2021, a man from Houston who had previously worked for an airline entered a guilty plea and admitted to fabricating identity documents in order to obtain free Spirit flying.
