Woman accused of stowing away on Delta flight from NY to Paris apprehended again, FBI says
The woman accused of stowing away on a Delta flight from New York to Paris was arrested again, this time while reportedly trying to get into Canada.
Svetlana Dali had been given an ankle monitor with GPS monitoring after her bond hearing in the stowaway case. She’d been ordered not to leave Philadelphia, except to attend court or meet with her lawyer or attend pre-trial services in New York. But Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and was on a bus to Canada when she was arrested again, the New York Times reported.
FBI in Buffalo on Monday confirmed Dali had been arrested again and was in custody in Buffalo. Dali was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon.
Dali last month had sneaked onto a Delta flight without a boarding pass. Surveillance footage shows Dali at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 26. According to a criminal complaint, Dali tried to get in a line at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, but was turned away when she was unable to show a boarding pass. A short time later, she successfully sneaked through after allegedly “entering through a special lane for airline employees masked by a large Air Europa flight crew.”
On Dec. 4, the TSA noted, “This is the only reported case of unauthorized access when over 18 million passengers were screened at TSA security checkpoints during the busiest Thanksgiving travel season ever. No one has ever fully breached the TSA security screening process.”
Dali boarded a plane around 10 p.m. on Nov. 26 without presenting a boarding pass.
“Delta agents, who were busy helping ticketed passengers board, did not stop her or ask her to present a boarding pass before she boarded the plane,” according to the criminal complaint.
Delta employees realized Dali was on the plane before the flight landed. They notified French law enforcement, who met Dali at the gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Nov. 27. They determined Dali didn’t have a passport or a boarding pass and detained her.
Dali flew back to New York on Dec. 4, and was then taken into custody by authorities in the U.S. During an interview with the FBI, Dali admitted to stowing away and to intentionally evading security officials and Delta employees, according to the criminal complaint.
She faces charges of obtaining transportation on an aircraft without consent or permission.
Dali is in the U.S. on a green card, according to a person familiar with the incident. The French Ministry of the Interior identified her as a Russian national.
