NEW YORK- Authorities arrested Svetlana Dali, a 57-year-old US permanent resident, on Monday (December 16, 2024) after she attempted to flee the country via bus to Canada, following her previous unauthorized flight operated by Delta Air Lines (DL) from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG).
Dali, who originally emigrated from Russia, was initially released on an ankle monitor after a federal court hearing in Brooklyn on December 5th stemming from her initial stowing away incident on a Delta Air Lines flight.
Woman Stowaway on Delta Flight, 2nd Act
Court-ordered conditions required her to remain at a friend’s Philadelphia apartment, which she violated by removing her tracking device.
Law enforcement officials detailed that Dali had deliberately cut off her ankle monitor and traveled to upstate New York, where she boarded a bus heading toward the Canadian border.
Unlike her previous unauthorized flight to Paris, where she traveled without a boarding pass or passport, this bus journey involved a purchased ticket, reported the NY Times.
Authorities in Buffalo have taken Svetlana Dali into custody following her second unauthorized travel attempt, according to Barbara Burns, spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of New York.
Dali is scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Michael J. Roemer on Tuesday afternoon before being transferred back to Brooklyn custody.
Prosecutors detailed Dali’s intricate method of infiltrating airport security at JFK International Airport during the peak travel season. She exploited security vulnerabilities by strategically blending with a Spanish airline flight crew, successfully bypassing checkpoints and boarding a fully booked Delta flight to Paris undetected.
During the seven-hour transatlantic flight, Dali attempted to avoid detection by repeatedly hiding in the aircraft’s bathrooms.
French authorities initially held her for approximately one week before Delta returned her to New York Airport, where FBI agents subsequently arrested her.
During Ms. Dali’s initial court appearance in Brooklyn this month, Brooke Theodora, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated,
Our concern is the risk of flight, rather than the nature of the offense.”
Brooke Theodora
Serious Breach
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced an independent review of the November 26 stowaway incident.
Delta Air Lines conducted its internal investigation and concluded that the security infrastructure remained fundamentally sound.
The airline attributed the incident to a deviation from standard security procedures, emphasizing that such breaches are not systemic but result from individual procedural lapses.
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