Svetlana Dali, who sneaked through security and onto a Delta Air Lines flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport last year, had multiple prior stowaway attempts, according to prosecutors.
Ms. Dali, a Russian who lives in the U.S., is facing stowaway charges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York after she managed to hitch a ride from New York to Paris on Nov. 26. She blended into other traveling groups to get past the Transportation Safety Administration and Delta gate agents. Prosecutors claim that wasn’t the first time she tried to stow away.
In February 2024, Ms. Dali was found hiding in a bathroom at Miami International Airport by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. She claimed that she was waiting for her husband and that she had just arrived on an Air France flight, but there was no record of her leaving the U.S. in the five years prior or having been on an Air France flight. She was ultimately escorted out of the airport.
In addition, there were no records of her having been admitted into the U.S. from elsewhere in the five years prior. Ms. Dali previously told investigators that she had been in France and Belgium in 2022 before coming back to America in February 2024, though CBP didn’t find that she stowed away from elsewhere to reach Miami, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 24, 2024, two days before she sneaked onto the flight at JFK, Ms. Dali went to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut and tried to go through security without a boarding pass before hiding in a group of other travelers on a second attempt. She failed.
Ms. Dali has pleaded not guilty to the stowaway charge that she was levied for the Nov. 26 incident. Jury selection for the case is slated to start on May 19.
