A repeat stowaway offender was caught aboard a flight from New Jersey to Italy on Wednesday, sources familiar with the matter said, more than a year after she pulled a similar stunt on a New York-to-Paris jet.
Svetlana Dali was taken into custody in Milan after, authorities alleged, she sneaked onto United Flight 19 at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, which departed at about 5:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
Dali made it past ticketing agents, and when the United in-flight crew realized she was aboard without a ticket, the Boeing 777-200 was already over the Atlantic Ocean, according to sources.
She pretended she couldn't hear questions from crew members when she was asked whether she had a ticket or was traveling improperly, a source familiar with the matter said.
In May, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Dali, a Russian citizen with U.S. residency, on a stowaway charge stemming from her unauthorized Delta Air Lines journey from New York to Paris on Nov. 26, 2024.
She was sentenced to time served for the unauthorized French journey.
Two days before she got on the Paris flight, Dali sneaked through security at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, but was caught before she could get on a plane, officials said.
And earlier that year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found Dali hiding in a bathroom in a secured area of Miami International Airport, officials said.
Representatives for the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI declined to comment Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday it was aware of the incident and that it was under investigation.
It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday whether Dali had hired or been assigned an attorney to speak on her behalf.
