NEW YORK — A lady on probation for stowing away on a world flight has been arrested once more after sneaking onto a flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Milan, Italy, in line with a regulation enforcement official acquainted with the matter.
Svetlana Dali, convicted in 2024 for flying to Paris with no passport or ticket, was taken into custody Thursday at Milan’s Malpensa Airport, mentioned the official, who was not licensed 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 further 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 attraction of the prior fees, 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 achieved since her launch. My workplace is dealing with the attraction, which remains 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 US residency, slip in with a bunch of ticketed passengers to stroll by Delta Air Traces workers unnoticed. In court docket, Dali mentioned she walked onto the airplane with out being requested for a boarding go. On the airplane, prosecutors say she hid in a toilet for a number of hours and wasn’t found till the airplane was nearing Paris.
After being flown again to New York, she advised an FBI agent she needed to the depart the US as a result of she believed individuals who had been poisoning her, in line with court docket 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 normal situations of probation listed is that she will’t knowingly depart the federal judicial district the place she was licensed to reside with out first getting permission from the court docket or the probation officer. She was additionally ordered to bear a psychological well being analysis and take part in therapy if deemed essential.
Prosecutors have mentioned Dali evaded safety measures at two different airports earlier than the JFK incident, and so they imagine she might have stowed away on one other flight.
Two days earlier than she sneaked on the Paris flight, she was in a position to get via TSA checkpoints at Bradley Worldwide Airport close to Hartford, Connecticut, by hiding amongst different passengers. Authorities mentioned she unsuccessfully tried to get on a airplane after which left the airport.
In February 2024, US 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.
