Stowaway who flew to Paris sent back to New York and arrested

The woman who got through security and boarded a flight to Paris without a boarding pass has been sent back to New York, where she was arrested upon arrival.

Svetlana Dali, a 57-year-old Russian national, was flown back to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday and was promptly arrested and interviewed by agents of the FBI’s JFK field office, according to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York Thursday.

The alleged stowaway’s tale includes allegations in a lawsuit that she was sold into slavery by a top Russian official a decade ago. But her ex-husband said she used him to gain residency in the U.S.

On Nov. 26, Ms. Dali went to JFK Terminal 4 and, after first being turned away because she did not have a boarding pass, successfully got through security by going through a special employee lane with an Air Europa flight crew before having her bags checked, according to the complaint.

Ms. Dali “was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft,” a Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said shortly after she successfully stowed away.

After getting her bags screened, Ms. Dali boarded Delta Air Lines flight 264 without being stopped or asked to present a boarding pass, according to the criminal complaint.

In a statement, Delta said “deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event. We are thoroughly addressing this matter and will continue to work closely with our regulators, law enforcement and other relevant stakeholders.” 

The company did not specify how gate employees deviated from their usual practices.

On board the plane before it landed in Paris, the Delta flight crew realized that Ms. Dali did not have a boarding pass and subsequently notified French authorities, leading to her detention before reaching customs.

Ms. Dali avoided detection for most of the flight by using multiple airplane lavatories. After being found out in Paris and denied entry due to not having a visa, she successfully resisted being sent back on Saturday and Tuesday.

She was escorted back on a Delta flight Wednesday in the company of two French security officials, according to CNN.

Less than a week boarding the flight in New York, Ms. Dali, a Philadelphia resident using a green card, sued her ex-husband Mahdi Dali, the Pennsylvania State Police, the FBI, the general prosecutor of Philadelphia and two other men in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

She claimed that in January 2014, she was sold to Mr. Dali and one of his friends by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for $20,000 for the purposes of a game, and that she was told in May 2014 that she was a slave with no civil rights.

Mr. Dali, a naturalized U.S. citizen, contends that Ms. Dali is a “fantasist” who married him for a green card.

“I was a good target for her. I was scammed. All she wanted was to live in America and I was naïve enough to fall for it,” Mr. Dali told the Daily Mail.

A domestic abuse case against Mr. Dali was dropped due to a lack of evidence.

“She made those false accusations to discredit me and try to get what she wanted, which was the house … She’s a liar. She lies all the time. But liars forget the lies they tell. Only the truth remains and she’s often caught out by that,” Mr. Dali told the Daily Mail.