Friday, December 06, 2024 - 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.”
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