A delusional Russian stowaway on probation for sneaking onto a Paris-bound flight out of JFK Airport was arrested again after she allegedly slipped onto another flight from Newark to Italy on Thursday.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was busted at Milan’s Malpensa Airport on Thursday, sources told The Associated Press – just 21 months after she was convicted for flying to the City of Light without a ticket or passport.
It’s not immediately clear how she snuck onto the United Airlines flight to Italy.
Svetlana Dali, who was convicted in 2024 for flying to Paris without a passport or ticket, has been arrested again after sneaking onto a flight to Milan, Italy.
Dali spotted buying a ticket at the train station with her lawyer in New York after being released with an ankle monitor in 2024. Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
In Dali’s November 2024 escapade, the mentally ill woman claimed she stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight from JFK to “save” herself from a purported poisoning.
“My actions, what I did, were simply … there were circumstances beyond my control,” she said at the time while speaking through a Russian interpreter.
Security video from that offense showed her briskly walking past Delta staff and onto the Paris-bound plane.
Once on board, she faked an illness in the bathroom for most of the seven-hour flight and wasn’t discovered until the plane was touching down.
Dali was eventually extradited back to the US – only after she was kicked off two return flights for causing disruptive outbursts.
Booking photo of Svetlana Dali in 2024. Niagara County Sheriff’s Office
Dali had snuck past security at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and got onto a flight to Paris. Elder Ordonez/INSTARimages
She was released without bail after her November arrest, but was cuffed again in January and sent to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after cutting off her ankle bracelet and trying to board a Greyhound bus to Canada, prosecutors said.
Dali, a Russian citizen who is a legal permanent US resident, was still on one year supervised release when she was arrested Thursday.
Part of her sentence stipulates that she can’t knowingly leave the federal judicial district where she was authorized to reside without permission from the court or her probation officer.
Dali evaded security measures at two other airports before the JFK incident. Svetlana Dali / Facebook
She was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and treatment, if deemed necessary.
During her three-day trial, prosecutors said they believe Dali stowed away on at least one other flight – and evaded security measures at two other airports.
Just 48 hours before catching the fateful flight to Paris, Dali bypassed TSA checkpoints at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, by blending in with other passengers.
Authorities said she never made it past the gate and eventually left the airport.
Then, in February 2024, US Customs and Border Protection agents came across Dali while she was hiding in a bathroom at the Miami International Airport. The agents, doubting her claims that she’d just arrived on an Air France flight, booted her out of the complex, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors claimed that her statements made to law enforcement after her arrest in Paris indicated that she had flown into Miami illegally.
FBI spokesperson Emily Molinari confirmed that the agency’s Newark office was “aware of the alleged stowaway.” The office is working with the Transportation Security Administration and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey “on this open investigation.”
United Airlines said it is “investigating this incident and working with the appropriate authorities.”
Michael Schneider, Dali’s federal defender, said his office was only “handling the appeal” of her prior charges.
With Post wires