A Delta Air Lines passenger who flew from New York to Paris as a stowaway is remaining in France for now after disrupting the return flight to the US that had been booked for her.
The woman, identified as Svetlana Dali, boarded flight 265 – which was full – without a ticket before it departed from John F Kennedy airport in Queens, according to officials. The US’s transportation security administration (TSA) said that while Dali, 57, went through property security channels, she never had a boarding pass or passport checked.
“TSA can confirm 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,” the federal agency said in a statement.
Fellow passengers said Dali managed to evade suspicion for a long time aboard the plane by moving from one bathroom to another, without ever taking a seat – but flight attendants eventually caught on.
A video captured by a passenger on the plane shared on social media showed the pilot making an announcement about the stowaway. “They’ve directed us to keep everyone on the airplane until we sort out the extra passenger that’s on that plane,” the pilot said on the announcement.
Upon arriving in Paris, French officials detained Dali, who did not have a visa for the country. French officials told ABC news that she is a Russian national who is a legal resident of the US.
Dali was put on another Delta flight back to the US from Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport. But she became “unruly”, according to a Delta representative. French authorities removed her from the plane, and she remained in the country.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Delta said they were each investigating the episode.
The TSA added it was independently reviewing “the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK”.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” Delta 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.”
The port authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK, did not respond to a request for comment.
