A woman discovered without a boarding pass on a Delta Air Lines flight flying from New York to Paris in November 2024 was removed from the flight taking her back to the US after causing a ‘disturbance’ onboard before the flight departed Paris.
As reported by AeroTime on November 28, 2024, the stowaway, a female aged 57 years, was discovered as the flight carrying flight number DL264 headed to Paris-Charles De Gaulle Airport (CDG) from New York-JFK Airport on Tuesday, November 26, 2024. According to reports, the woman was discovered while the aircraft was en route between the two cities, with the crew electing to proceed as planned to their destination. Upon landing, the stowaway was taken into custody by officials from the French police.
The woman, named by CBS News as Svetlana Dali, was subsequently escorted onto Delta Air Lines flight DL265 in Paris on Saturday, November 30, 2024, by the French authorities for her return flight to New York. However, before the plane had even left the gate, French law enforcement officers were called to a ‘disturbance’ on the aircraft supposedly caused by Dali. Following being apprehended by the officers, she was removed from the flight and is believed to still be in Paris at the time of writing and being held in custody by the French police.
It is understood that while the French authorities had escorted her to the plane in Paris, there were no officers tasked with escorting her on the flight back to New York. As the carrier that brought Dali to France in the first place, as is common practice, Delta remains liable to return her to her country of origin. According to reports in the US media, Dali is said to be a resident of Philadelphia in the Northeast US. She is reportedly in the US on a green card although according to the French Ministry of the Interior, Dali is described as a Russian national.
Reena Roy has the latest on the stowaway scheduled to return to the U.S after sneaking onboard a Delta airlines flight to Paris. The woman a Russian national removed from her return flight after officials say she became unruly. @ReenaRoy has the details. https://t.co/2mFAYn8fXf pic.twitter.com/hmh7xFzxnp
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) December 2, 2024
Before boarding the plane, the woman had been held in a special zone at Charles de Gaulle Airport for people awaiting deportation, as she did not meet the entry criteria for the European Union, reported local media. A man onboard the plane waiting to depart from Paris told CNN that the woman who was being deported was sitting across the aisle from him, his wife, and their three children.
“She kept on saying, “I do not want to go back to the USA. Only a judge can make me go back to the USA,” said the man. “She also repeated the Geneva Convention a few times.” Reports have stated that the US federal authorities do not plan to charge Dali with a federal crime. She may, however, face state criminal charges in New York, possibly including a state count of criminal trespassing. The woman could be subject to a civil penalty or fine for bypassing the document check process.
A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman went through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a checkpoint at New York-JFK Airport after somehow evading the document and ID check portion of the TSA process. Her bags were also scanned for prohibited items before she went to the gate and managed to board the Delta flight to Paris, the source said.
A TSA spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the woman “without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items” and then “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”
After passing the entire TSA security process at JFK Airport, it remains unclear how Dali boarded the flight to Paris without showing a boarding pass or passport to any Delta Air Lines staff. In the meantime, the French law enforcement authorities and the TSA have launched their own separate investigations.