By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI, Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A lady on probation for stowing away on a global flight has been arrested once more after sneaking onto a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Milan, Italy, in keeping with a regulation enforcement official accustomed to the matter.
Svetlana Dali, convicted in 2024 for flying to Paris and not using a passport or ticket, was taken into custody Thursday at Milan’s Malpensa Airport, mentioned the official, who was not approved to reveal data publicly concerning the case and spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity.
FBI spokesperson Emily Molinari mentioned the company’s Newark workplace was “conscious of the alleged stowaway,” however didn’t instantly disclose extra data. The FBI is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport, and the Transportation Safety Administration “on this open investigation,” Molinari mentioned.
United Airways, which operated the flight, mentioned it’s “investigating this incident and dealing with the suitable authorities.”
Michael Ok. Schneider, Dali’s federal defender who was additionally dealing with her enchantment of the prior expenses, declined to remark Thursday. He additionally declined to touch upon whether or not Dali had a psychological well being analysis because the phrases of her supervised launch required.
“I can’t touch upon what she’s performed since her launch. My workplace is dealing with the enchantment, which continues to be pending,” Schneider mentioned.
Dali had been convicted in Might 2025 on a stowaway cost for slipping previous safety and airline gate brokers at John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York sneaking onto a flight from New York to Paris.
Surveillance video confirmed Dali, a Russian citizen with U.S. residency, slip in with a bunch of ticketed passengers to stroll by Delta Air Traces employees unnoticed. In courtroom, Dali mentioned she walked onto the aircraft with out being requested for a boarding move. On the aircraft, prosecutors say she hid in a toilet for a number of hours and wasn’t found till the aircraft was nearing Paris.
After being flown again to New York, she informed an FBI agent she needed to the go away the U.S. as a result of she believed individuals who had been poisoning her, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
Earlier than this newest incident, Dali was nonetheless on one yr supervised launch after being sentenced to time served final July. Among the many commonplace circumstances of probation listed is that she will’t knowingly go away the federal judicial district the place she was approved to reside with out first getting permission from the courtroom or the probation officer. She was additionally ordered to endure a psychological well being analysis and take part in remedy if deemed obligatory.
Prosecutors have mentioned Dali evaded safety measures at two different airports earlier than the JFK incident, they usually consider she could have stowed away on one other flight.
Two days earlier than she sneaked on the Paris flight, she was in a position to get by means of TSA checkpoints at Bradley Worldwide Airport close to Hartford, Connecticut, by hiding amongst different passengers. Authorities mentioned she unsuccessfully tried to get on a aircraft after which left the airport.
In February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Safety brokers found Dali hiding in a toilet at Miami Worldwide Airport, prosecutors mentioned. Dali was escorted out of the airport after the brokers couldn’t verify her story that she had simply arrived on an Air France flight, prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors mentioned federal brokers didn’t make any findings that Dali had illegally traveled as a stowaway to Miami, however her statements to regulation enforcement after her arrest in Paris appeared to point that she had flown into Miami illegally.
Related Press writers Michael R. Sisak and Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.
