Stowaway Svetlana Dali successfully sneaks on plane to Europe again, sources say
By Alexandra Skores, Mark Morales, CNN
(CNN) — A woman previously convicted of sidestepping security and airline agents to board a flight to Paris without a ticket has been detained in Milan, Italy for allegedly stowing away yet again.
Svetlana Dali snuck by the airline employees at Gate C74 at Newark Liberty International Airport and onto United flight 19, Wednesday night according to a law enforcement source.
The Boeing 777-200, which seats 364, departed Newark at 5:51 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware. Sometime during the more than seven-hour flight airline staff on the plane discovered Dali was onboard without a ticket.
When the plane landed in Milan at 7:09 a.m. Thursday, she was detained by law enforcement.
“Safety and security are our highest priorities,” United Airlines said in a statement. “We are investigating this incident and working with the appropriate authorities.”
The FBI in Newark told CNN they are aware of the “alleged stowaway.”
“We are working with Port Authority and TSA on this open investigation,” said FBI spokesperson Emily Molinari in a statement.
CNN has reached out to the Transportation Security Administration for more information.
Dali stows-away to Paris in November 2024
In November 2024, Dali, who is a Russian national and US permanent resident, successfully stowed away on Delta Air Lines flight 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Security video released after her arrest, showed Dali bypassing an airport employee in charge of a crew member security checkpoint and walking with airline staff past the station where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked. At that point, she was scanned and received a pat-down while her possessions were screened.
At the gate, with a grey hoodie pulled over her head, Dali placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family traveling together and made it past the gate agent without being noticed.
Once onboard the plane, she spent some time apparently hiding in the bathroom to remain out of the crew’s sight, but was eventually discovered, other passengers told CNN. She was detained after arriving in Paris.
Dali was returned to the United States and appeared in federal court in Brooklyn, where her court appointed lawyer argued for her release.
“We do not believe she is a serious risk of flight,” federal public defense attorney Michael Schneider told the court at the time. “It’s not as if she can sneak on a flight every day.”
Yet, shortly after getting out of jail, pending trial, Dali tried to leave the United States again, prosecutors said.
In December 2024, she managed to cut off an electronic ankle monitor and boarded a Greyhound bus bound for Canada, a law enforcement source told CNN at the time.
Dali was arrested and held in custody for more than seven months until her conviction for illegally boarding the Paris flight. She was subsequently sentenced to time served.
During her sentencing, Dali repeated a claim that she believes she is being poisoned by someone and said, through a Russian translator, that “all of these actions were taken in order to save my life.”
Paris flight was not her first attempt, prosecutors said
During her trial for stowing away to France, prosecutors said she had attempted to board flights without documentation at least twice before.
Dali tried to stowaway on a plane at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, two days before she made it on the plane at JFK, they said.
And In February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered her hiding in a bathroom in a secured area in the international arrivals zone of Miami International Airport.
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