NEW YORK (AFP) – A woman accused of evading airport identity and ticket checks and sneaking onto a flight from New York to Paris was charged with being a stowaway.
Svetlana Dali alleged bypassed a checkpoint at New York’s JFK airport, before sneaking aboard a Delta Airlines flight to the French capital on November 26.
She was initially turned away at an airport security checkpoint when she could not produce a boarding pass, so instead passed through a screening channel for air crew by mingling with Air Europa flight staff, the federal criminal complaint reads.
The Transportation Security Administration, responsible for United States airline safety, said the woman was subject to physical screening even after her documents were overlooked.
It is unclear why Dali, 57, sought to sneak aboard the Delta flight to Paris, with the crime of being a stowaway carrying a prison sentence of up to five years.
Dali was challenged by flight attendants midflight when it was revealed she did not have a boarding pass, and detained on arrival in Paris.
Delta said the incident was a “deviation from standard procedures”, with reports claiming Dali had moved between aircraft lavatories so crew members would not realise she did not have an assigned seat.
