Newly released surveillance footage shows how a Russian national stowaway was able to slip past security at JFK International Airport in New York and successfully board a flight to France.
Security camera video, provided by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to The Associated Press on Wednesday after a records request, shows Svetlana Dali not only eluding gate agents checking boarding passes for the Delta Air Lines flight last November, but also going through security undetected earlier in the day, despite being screened and getting patted down.
Dali, 57, was taken into custody in Paris in late November 2024, after she snuck onto a flight 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 periods of time in the plane’s multiple bathrooms.
She was detained when authorities discovered she didn’t have a valid visa to enter the country, French National Police said at the time.
According to court documents, viewed by The Associated Press, Dali was initially turned away from security screening at JFK International Airport by a Transportation Security Administration officer after she failed to produce a boarding pass.
However, the documents claim she was able to sneak into a separate security lane for airline employees and blend in with a large Air Europa flight crew, making it to the point where bags are inspected and passengers screened.
The security footage shared Wednesday shows Dali joining a group of passengers boarding the flight and strolling past the Delta agents checking tickets without being stopped.
After she was arrested on French soil, two unsuccessful attempts were made to deport her back to the U.S., but both were postponed after she “started screaming” and kicking up a fuss once aboard the departing planes.
She was finally brought back to the U.S. on Dec. 4 and arrested by the FBI.
Despite a Dec. 6 court hearing that ordered her not to leave Philadelphia and being outfitted with an ankle monitor until her trial, Dali was not deterred.
She was arrested in Buffalo, N.Y., several days later, having allegedly cut off her monitor before making her way to upstate New York, where she rode a bus toward the Canadian border. She was arrested while trying to cross into Canada.
She is being held in a federal lockup in Brooklyn, records show. Dali has pleaded not guilty to a stowaway charge over the incident last November. Her trial is set to begin next month but prosecutors and her lawyer have said they are trying to work toward a plea deal.
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