Aviation experts are trying to determine how a stowaway made it all the way to Paris on a flight that left New York last week.
Svetlana Dali, a 57-year-old Russian national, snuck onto a Delta Air Lines flight at New York’s JFK International Airport without a boarding pass on Nov. 26 and flew all the way to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, apparently concealing herself by spending long chunks of time in the plane’s multiple bathrooms.
Police boarded the plane at the Paris airport upon touchdown, according to a video from a passenger that was shared on social media. “This is the captain. We’re just waiting for the police to come on board,” the pilot can be heard saying.
Dali was detained when authorities discovered she didn’t have a valid visa to enter the country, French National Police said in a statement last week.
On Wednesday, Dec. 4, she was deported to the U.S. and arrested by the FBI. The charges against her have not yet been made public and she is scheduled to appear in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon.
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Two previous attempts to deport Dali were unsuccessful. ABC7 News in New York reports she “started screaming” after boarding a plane on Nov. 30. Fox News reports a similar scene played out on Dec. 3, and she was removed from that flight, too, after she began screaming, “Please help me. I don’t want to go to the United States.”
How did she get on the plane?
Last week, it emerged Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK airport, and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.
A TSA spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that “an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”
Delta has remained quite tight-lipped, however, telling USA Today in a statement that the breach happened during a “deviation from standard procedures,” but not providing further details. They also insisted that their infrastructure “is sound” after a security review.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta continued. “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.”
A senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN that, at the gate, Dali placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family travelling together.
How did she hide?
One passenger said Dali was moving between the plane’s bathrooms during the duration of the lengthy flight, attempting to dodge flight attendants.
“I overheard the flight attendants talking about it with the pilots,” New York City real estate broker Rob Jackson told CNN. “They said this person was in one lavatory and then would exit and walk to a different lavatory and go in there for a long time.”
