A woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to Paris last week was released from custody with conditions after being charged in federal court. Svetlana Dali, a US permanent resident and Russian national, is charged with one count of being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent. She appeared in federal court in Brooklyn Friday, where a judge set her release conditions without paying bail. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison. Those conditions include the provision that she wears a GPS tracking device as she resides temporarily with a church friend in Pennsylvania, Judge Joseph Marutollo ruled. She is also banned from all airports.
Details of the Flight Incident
Ms. Dali boarded Delta Flight No. 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport without a boarding pass. She bypassed two verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft,” a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement. This means that she was not carrying any prohibited items and did not pose a security threat,
She was discovered while the plane was in midair and was taken into custody in Paris. A flight attendant discovered the stowaway after she made frequent visits to the Boeing 767-400ER’s various lavatories, according to a source familiar with the incident. The 767-400 is a wide-body airliner and one of the largest in Delta’s fleet, with a seat capacity of 238.
Flight attendants have access to the flight’s manifest, which lists passengers and their seat numbers, and they verified the woman was a suspected stowaway and was not a ticketed passenger. According to a source familiar with the incident, three pilots and eight flight attendants were on Tuesday’s flight. Delta didn’t disclose the number of passengers, citing ongoing investigations into the incident. Then, Dali was detained by French law enforcement authorities who met her at the gate before she entered customs. French police ordered her to be sent back to the US when she was found to be ineligible to enter the country.
Repeat Customer and Trial Outlook
Dali has a history of trying to illegally enter planes. Dali told investigators she has tried to board flights for free at several US airports. One of those incidents occurred in February at Miami International Airport, where she was halted as she tried to sneak into a secure area through a customs processing area, which led to departing flights.
Judge Marutollo also told her that she must undergo mental health treatment required by the pretrial services department. Her attorney, Michael Schneider, said Friday in court that the stowaway charge was unlikely to result in a prison sentence “unless she does something stupid.” A trial date has not yet been set
