Delta stowaway Svetlana Dali guilty of federal charge after sneaking onto JFK flight to Paris

Yahoo

22-05-2025

A stowaway who slipped onboard a JFK Airport flight to Paris last year had one more trick up her sleeve — trying to convince a jury that no one from Delta Airlines told her she needed a boarding pass. But the jury didn't let her fly free.
On Thursday, a Brooklyn Federal Court jury found Svetlana Dali, 57, guilty of stowing away on an aircraft, roughly six months after she captured national headlines by getting on board Delta Flight 264 to Paris without a ticket or boarding pass.
After a three-day trial, the jury needed less than an hour to clip Dali's wings.
Dali was looking to fly to Paris on Nov. 26, and after she got turned away at a TSA checkpoint, she blended in with an Air Europa flight crew and rejoined the Delta boarding line undetected, according to prosecutors.
She spent the majority of the flight locked in the loo, feigning illness, until a flight attendant finally demanded she take a seat when the plane was landing. The flight's crew turned her over to authorities when the plane landed.
Videos presented to the jury shows her boarding the plane, and later telling federal agents that she knew what she did was wrong.
Her defense attorney, Michael Schneider, tried to poke holes in one of the basic elements of the charges against her, that the government didn't prove she intended to board without permission.
'To be fair, you might be sitting there [thinking] everyone knows you need a ticket to get on a plane,'' he said, but added, 'She's not some sophisticated world traveler.'
'You can't say that she knew she needed a boarding pass … because she didn't [know],' Schneider said.
Despite the verdict, Dali could wind up with a sentence of time served — which she also might have received if she took a plea deal.
Though the charge carries a five-year maximum sentence, federal guidelines recommend zero to six months based on her background. She's been locked up in MDC Brooklyn since January, after the feds say she cut her ankle bracelet and tried to take a Greyhound bus to Canada.
She took the stand in her own defense Wednesday, telling the jury that she made a beeline for the plane bathroom and 'started throwing up right away,' she said. She stayed inside until the plane was about to land. 'I was throwing up. I was throwing up blood, too. I wasn't even able to look at the watch. I wasn't in the position to do that.'
On cross-examination Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Theodora challenged her by pointing out a child in front of her showed a passport.
'I was looking literally at my feet. Wasn't feeling well. I wasn't looking around at all,' she said, leading Theodora to ask, 'And you believed you didn't have to show a boarding pass, right?'
'If they had asked me I wouldn't have shown it. I didn't have it.'
The prosecutor followed up, 'And you believe you didn't need a passport; is that right?' Dali responded, 'I believe it's possible.'
In her closing argument, Theodora told the jury Dali knew exactly what she was doing, because she had tried it twice before: At Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn., just 48 hours before the JFK jaunt, and Miami International Airport in February 2024.
'This wasn't the defendant's first time bypassing airport security, and this is not even the first time she got caught doing it,' Theodora said.
Ms. Dali told a flight attendant that she was seeking asylum in Paris and thought the U.S. government and Russia were poisoning her with radioactive material polonium, but Brooklyn Federal Court Judge Ann Donnelly didn't allow any testimony about her claims, or about her mental health.
Donnelly said she'd try to set a quick sentencing date after the defense and government offer their filings next week.