Florida man guilty of fraud after 120 free flights posing as flight attendant – National
They say fake it til you make it, but one Florida man took the phrase very seriously after posing as a flight attendant to book more than 120 free flights over the course of six years.
On Tuesday, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced that a federal judge found Tiron Alexander, 35, guilty of wire fraud and unlawfully entering a secure airport area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport under false pretences.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Alexander booked free flights from 2018 to 2024 on an airline carrier’s website that were only available to pilots and flight attendants who worked for other airlines.
Alexander flew on 34 flights with the airline carrier “without paying for any of them by posing as a flight attendant who worked for other airlines,” according to the press release.
“Over the 34 flights, Alexander claimed through the airline carrier’s website application process—a process that required an applicant to select whether they were a pilot or flight attendant and provide their employer, date of hire, and badge number information—that he worked for seven different airlines and had approximately 30 different badge numbers and dates of hire,” the press release explained.
Evidence at the trial also showed that Alexander impersonated a flight attendant on three other airline carriers and booked more than 120 free flights by falsely claiming to be a flight attendant.
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The carriers named in the court documents include American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.
According to Alexander’s indictment, he stated that he had worked for an airline headquartered in Dallas since November 2015 but never held a position as a pilot or a flight attendant, which meant he was never eligible for the free flights.
The maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years in prison and 10 years for entering the secure airport areas under false pretences, according to the indictment.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is currently investigating the case and U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Becerra is scheduled to sentence Alexander on Aug. 25.
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