Woman stowaway on NYC-to-Paris plane blended in with another flight crew: feds

The stowaway who slipped onto a flight from JFK Airport to Paris blended in with another plane’s flight crew to get access to the international Delta flight, according to federal authorities.
Svetlana Dali, 57, first tried to bluff her way past a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint at JFK Terminal 4 on Nov. 26 — the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and one of the heaviest travel days of the year — but was turned away when she couldn’t present a boarding pass, according to a criminal complaint.
Undeterred, Dali got into a special line for airline employees, mixing in with a large Air Europa flight crew, the complaint alleges.
She used that cover to get back into line, and was screened by TSA alongside passengers with tickets, the feds allege.
From there, she walked to gate B38, and boarded Delta Flight 264 while the airline’s agents were distracted helping other passengers, the feds say.
After takeoff, she tried to avoid detection by moving between an empty seat and one of the bathrooms at the back of the plane, sources told the Daily News. But halfway through the trip, a flight attendant noticed she was spending so much time in the bathroom and asked to see her boarding pass, the sources said. She was then taken into custody.
Delta employees notified French law enforcement, who met the plane at Charles de Gaulle Airport, according to the complaint.
Dali admitted to authorities that she stowed away and looked for opportunities to elude TSA officials and Delta agents when she knew they would ask for her pass.
Once under arrest in Paris, Dali asked for asylum, but was denied on Thanksgiving Day. Dali, who holds a Russian passport, requested asylum in France a few years earlier but was denied, Paris officials told CNN.
She was supposed to return back to the U.S. on Nov. 30 after being taken into custody in France, CNN reported, but she became unruly and started screaming, causing her return trip to be rescheduled.
Dali faces a federal stowaway charge. She’s slated to be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court Thursday afternoon.