A Russian woman who stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris last week was arrested Wednesday night, Dec. 4, as she returned to the US, the FBI said in a statement.
57-year-old Svetlana Dali, whom French authorities identified as the stowaway, is expected to face at least one federal charge after she returned to the United States Wednesday, according to multiple law enforcement officials.
She is expected to be charged with being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent, and could face up to five years in prison.
Dail is expected to make her initial court appearance Thursday, Dec. 5, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said.
How Dali managed to bypass multiple checkpoints and sneak onto a plane on one of the busiest travel days of the year has raised serious questions about airport security.
In a shocking security breach at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on November 30, Dali was said to have walked through security checkpoints and past the Delta gate to sneak on to the flight to Paris despite having no valid travel documents.
Dali first bypassed an airport terminal employee in charge of the line for the Known Crewmember checkpoint at JFK Airport’s Terminal 4 and bypassed stations where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration told CNN. At the gate, she placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family travelling together, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. She was not carrying any prohibited items, according to a TSA spokesperson.
Onboard, Dali managed to avoid being easily discovered by hiding in the lavatories. She would go in one lavatory and then would exit and walk to a different lavatory and go in there for a long time.
After managing to stow away on a plane to Paris, she was detained in Paris and officials attempted to deport her back to JFK.
Dali was seen in bombshell new footage begging flight attendants not to “send her back to America”.
Passengers filmed the stowaway after she was caught out by flight attendants, as Dali became “belligerent” and screamed at staff trying to question her.
“Please help me!” she was seen saying in the video. “I don’t want to go to the United States.”
Officials said she was detained in France and was placed back on a flight to the US days later, but new footage then also showed her being combative with airline staff, screaming about needing “asylum against the United States.”
Dali returned to the US on Wednesday, Dec. 4, flanked by two security officials.
When the plane carrying Dali from Paris back to the US arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, at least a dozen law enforcement officials from different agencies were standing outside the gate, and Dali remained on while all other passengers got off.
Dali left Paris on Wednesday, Dec. 4, aboard a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly after 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET). She was escorted onto the Delta Air Lines-operated plane by two French security officials.
“Everything is going to plan,” said an airport official while the plane was still in the air.
Two previous attempts to send Dali back to the US were abandoned after she started screaming after boarding a plane Saturday and on Tuesday when Delta refused to fly her after she boarded.
Delta has declined to comment on its reasons for refusing to transport her.
“I’m a little bit nervous. She passed security which means there was a failure somewhere,” Zaid Haddad, a passenger on Wednesday’s flight, told CNN. “I’m glad there’s security with her.”
Delta Air Lines said it has reviewed its own security after the incident last week and insists its infrastructure “is sound.”
Delta found “deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event,” the statement said.
The airline did not specify how it strayed from its procedures.
“We are thoroughly addressing this matter and will continue to work closely with our regulators, law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders. Nothing is of greater importance than safety and security.”
Delta thanked French and US authorities for their help and deferred further comments to them.
The airline’s statement, issued Wednesday night, is the most it has said so far about how Dali was able to board the flight, but it still did not provide specifics about what took place.
TSA spokesperson Alexa Lopez told CNN Wednesday this incident “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,” Lopez added, as Dali’s bag was screened while going through security.
Inspectors from the TSA are preparing a civil case against Dali after reviewing airport security video from inside JFK Airport, agency spokesperson Lopez told CNN.
“The TSA will open civil cases against passengers when there’s evidence that procedures may have been violated,” Lopez said.
The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department.
Law enforcement authorities want to question Dali about how she evaded airport security and determine whether or not to bring charges, according to a senior law enforcement official.
Delta said it is working with law enforcement and conducting an investigation of its own.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement. “That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”