A federal jury has convicted Svetlana Dali of stowing away on a Delta flight to Paris last November after passing through security in a lane reserved for crewmembers and bypassing gate agents by blending in with boarding passengers.
Dali had been charged with a federal stowaway count for boarding an overnight Delta flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City on Nov. 26, 2024, and traveling to Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport in France without having a ticket. She had pleaded not guilty.
A Brooklyn federal jury found her guilty on Thursday.
Dali, a Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident who most recently lived in Philadelphia, took the witness stand during the brief trial. She admitted she did not have a boarding pass when she walked onto the flight.
Instead, she said she walked through to “where the people were boarding the flights and then I just walked into the airplane.”
Dali said she stayed in the bathroom “almost the duration of the flight, almost from the beginning to the end.”
The judge did not set a sentencing date. Her sentencing guidelines range is zero to six months in prison. She has already been in custody for more than five months.
In a video obtained by ABC News, Dali can be seen walking up to gate B38 at Terminal 4 while other passengers have their boarding passes and passports checked for the Paris flight. After gate attendants assisted a separate group of customers and ushered them toward the jet bridge, Dali followed immediately behind, the video shows.
Dali was ultimately spotted by Delta employees before the plane landed in France, according to the FBI complaint. The complaint stated that Dali was unable to provide a boarding pass and that once the plane landed, French law enforcement would not allow her to pass the customs area.
Officials attempted to send Dali back to the United States on another flight shortly after, but Dali was removed from the plane after insisting against her return.
She was eventually brought back to New York to face charges. During an interview with the FBI upon her return, Dali reportedly admitted to flying as a stowaway and stated she did not have a plane ticket and that she intentionally evaded TSA security officials and Delta employees so she could travel without buying one, according to the complaint.
After being released from custody in early December 2024, Dali allegedly cut off her ankle monitor and traveled to Buffalo, where she tried unsuccessfully to cross over the Peace Bridge into Canada on a bus on Dec. 16, 2024. She has been in custody since.
In the wake of the JFK incident, a Transportation Security Administration spokesperson said that a review had been conducted and as a result, “additional security measures are now in place.”
“TSA’s security measures are always evolving to ensure this type of incident does not happen again,” the spokesperson said.
