Latest news with #stowaway
Daily Mail
35 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Moment two illegal immigrants are discovered in wheel arches of coach packed with Brit schoolchildren returning from France
Peering out from under a wheel arch on the side of a motorway, this is the moment two illegal immigrants were discovered hiding under a coach packed with British schoolchildren returning from France. The men, who are believed to have climbed into a void behind the tyres when the bus stopped at a beach near Calais, were accused of 'bullsh**ing' about their ages by the hero driver when they claimed to be children themselves. One of the suspects arrested by police had apparently said initially he was 20-years-old before correcting himself and saying he was 17. The stowaways were discovered on the M11 in Essex last Friday night after they started banging and cheering from under the coach when they realised they were in the UK. The coach was carrying home around 50 schoolchildren aged between 11 and 12 on their end of year 7 trip to Europe. Speaking to MailOnline anonymously, one parent at the school said that the driver and teachers heard some noise from under the front of the bus. 'They heard a knock. It was like a knock at the door. And then something like cheering', the mother said. 'They then tried to start pulling over and the wheels touched a bit of the gravel on the floor, which then got spat up by your wheels. They heard someone shouting "hey" and then they knew there was someone stowed away under the coach'. The two young men were arrested on the side of the M11 after a teacher called the police after banging and cheering was heard below the coach A teacher at the school then called the police who apparently encouraged the driver to slow down to around 45mph and travel along the hard shoulder to the nearest services, Birchanger, at junction 8 of the M11 south of Cambridge. MailOnline's parent insider said: 'The poor driver was in a terrible situation, if he slowed down too much, there was a chance they would either get out and get caught in the wheels and die'. They added: 'It would have been death and carnage - and the kids were going to see that and be scarred for life'. A Highways Agency patrol saw the coach driving on the hard shoulder and demanded the driver pull over and stop. The driver complied having apparently turned up the music from the coach's stereo to hide the noise from the 11 and 12-year-olds on board. He also asked the students to pull the curtains over the windows. The parent of a child on board said of the driver: 'He was amazing. The kids had no clue'. He got out of the bus and looked under the front wheel arch and saw the migrant inside. 'He apparently asked: "Where are you from? Where are you from?" The migrant understood English and then said "France". 'He then asked: "How old are you? He said: "20 no, no. I mean 17. 17. I'm 17". 'The driver then told him: "You're bullsh**ting". The police arrived and then arrested the two men and took them into custody. The coach went on to the local services but no other stowaways were found. Another parent said: 'Because of the hold-up to arrest the migrants, they didn't get back until well after 11 pm. It's a total shock because they could have been any two people. Thankfully they did not try to do anything, but I feel uneasy knowing they were close to my child'. The incident came days after 13 migrants were seen running from a lorry in Charlton, south-east London close to a Sainsbury's supermarket. The Home Office said an investigation is underway into how the two migrants got under the coach. A spokesman said: 'We are relentless in our pursuit of people-smuggling gangs and stand ready to respond to all methods, including coaches and other clandestine routes, using a wide range of techniques and technology to protect our border security'. An Essex Police spokesman added: 'We were alerted to concerns for the welfare of two people discovered under a bus on the M11 near Stansted on Friday evening. 'Officers were called out to a rest stop shortly before 10 pm. One person has been taken into police custody, while one is being referred to social care'. Recent figures revealed that 5,874 illegal immigrants were discovered trying to get to Britain via ports at Calais and Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles. This figure for 2024 was 22 per cent higher than the 4,794 in 2023.
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Illegal immigrants hide on coach taking pupils to France on school trip – as stowaway journeys surge
A PAIR of illegal immigrants targeted a coach on a school trip to France to get across the English Channel – after a surge in stowaway journeys. The two of asylum seekers - one thought to be a child - climbed into the luggage compartment as the bus brought back 50 children from a day trip to Bolougne on Friday. 2 They remained hidden from Border Force officials at Dover and remained in the storage section of the coach until it stopped at Birchanger Green Welcome Break service station on the M11. Year 7 pupils and teachers are said to have heard noises from the bottom of the coach, prompting the driver to pull over and stop. Two illegal immigrants, including a child, are said to have emerged from the vehicle and remained at the service station until they were detained by police shortly before 10pm. The students, from a small secondary school in Cambridgeshire, were taken inside the halt and told the coach had suffered an engine failure. It took an hour for the children to be allowed back on the coach so the journey home could resume. A parent of one of the children on board said: 'The children were really tired because they had been up at 3am, and they were meant to get home at 10pm. 'Because of the hold-up to arrest the migrants, they didn't get back until well after 11pm. 'It's a total shock because they could have been any two people. "Thankfully they did not try to do anything, but I feel uneasy knowing they were close to my child.' An Essex Police spokeswoman confirmed: 'We were alerted to concerns for the welfare of two people discovered under a bus on the M11 near Stansted on Friday evening. 13 migrants jumped from the back of a lorry at a Sainsbury's distribution centre in South East London 'Officers were called out to a rest stop shortly before 10pm. 'One person has been taken into police custody, while one is being referred to social care.' It comes after we revealed 13 migrants targeted a lorry delivering supplies to a Sainsbury 's distribution centre last week. Figures show there were 5,874 detections of illegal immigrants at ports on the continent, including Calais, Dunkirk and the Channel Tunnel in Coquelles. It is a rise of 22 per cent compared with 4,794 in 2023. While migrants crossing the Channel are easily recorded, lorry stowaways may reach the UK undetected. Many go on to obtain illegal cash-in-hand work or claim asylum and be housed in a hotel. Last night the Home Office said it was investigating how the pair evaded border control. A spokeswoman said: 'We are relentless in our pursuit of people-smuggling gangs and stand ready to respond to all methods, including coaches and other clandestine routes, using a wide range of techniques and technology to protect our border security.' 2
CBS News
22-05-2025
- CBS News
JFK stowaway suspect Svetlana Dali convicted
The woman accused of sneaking onto a flight from New York City to Paris last year was found guilty Thursday on a federal stowaway charge. Sveltana Dali's sentencing guidelines call for up to six months in prison. She's already been held without bail for five months. The judge did not immediately set a sentencing date. A grand jury indicted Svetlana Dali for sneaking aboard a a Delta flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport back in November. She flew to Paris, and was taken into custody by French authorities once she landed. An attempt for her to be sent back to the U.S. ended when she had to be removed from her return flight for a disturbance before takeoff. In December, she returned to New York and was re-arrested in Buffalo after allegedly removing her GPS monitor and trying to cross the border into Canada. She's since been held at the Brooklyn Detention Center, which is also where Sean "Diddy" Combs and suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO killer Luigi Mangione are being held, as well.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- The Independent
Jury convicts New York-Paris flight stowaway who slipped past gate agents
A jury on Thursday convicted a woman who sneaked onto a flight from New York to Paris without a boarding pass by slipping past security and airline gate agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport last year. The short trial of Svetlana Dali concluded with a guilty finding on a stowaway charge by jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. Jury selection and opening statements were both held on Tuesday, and Dali took the stand on Wednesday. The judge did not immediately set a sentencing date. Dali faces up to six months in prison, according to her sentencing guidelines. To date, she has been in custody for more than five months. Dali's lawyer, Michael Schneider, declined to comment to The Associated Press following the verdict. Surveillance video shows Dali, a 57-year-old Russian citizen with U.S. residency, glomming onto a group of ticketed passengers as they pass two Delta Air Lines staffers who were checking tickets and didn't appear to notice Dali. She then strolls with the group onto an air bridge to a plane bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. In court, Dali said she walked onto the plane without being asked for a boarding pass, though acknowledged she did not have one. Prosecutors said Dali had initially been turned away from a security checkpoint at JFK by a Transportation Security Administration official after she was unable to show a boarding pass. But she was able to join a special security lane for airline employees and, masked by a large Air Europa flight crew, made it to an area where she was screened and patted down. Then she went to the Delta gate. On the plane, prosecutors say she hid in a bathroom for several hours and wasn't discovered by Delta crew members until the plane was nearing Paris. Dali told the court she went in there because she was feeling sick. Crew members notified French authorities, who detained her before she entered customs at the Paris airport, according to court documents. She was eventually flown back to New York. During two hours of questioning by an FBI agent, Dali said she flew to France because she had to the leave the U.S., where she said police refused to protect her from people who were poisoning her, according to court documents. Dali was initially released after her arrest with electric monitoring. But she then was arrested again in Buffalo, New York, after she cut off the monitor and tried to enter Canada. Prosecutors said Dali evaded security measures at two other airports before the JFK incident, and they believe she may have stowed away on another flight. Two days before she sneaked on the Paris flight, she was able to get through TSA, identification and boarding pass checkpoints at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, by hiding among other passengers. Authorities said she unsuccessfully tried to get on a plane and then left the airport. In February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered Dali hiding in a bathroom at Miami International Airport, prosecutors said. Dali, who was found in a secured area in the international arrivals zone, was fingerprinted, her baggage was checked and she was escorted out of the airport, after the agents couldn't confirm her story that she had just arrived on an Air France flight and was waiting for her husband, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said federal agents did not make any findings that Dali had illegally traveled as a stowaway to Miami, but her statements to law enforcement after her arrest in Paris appeared to indicate that she had flown into Miami illegally. Dali told authorities that she returned to the U.S. in February 2024 after spending time in Europe, but there were no records of her being admitted to the U.S. within the past five years.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- New York Times
Airplane Stowaway Is Convicted of Infiltrating Flight to Paris
The woman went through the legal system much as she went through Kennedy International Airport, by ducking, dodging and imposing her own reality. Svetlana Dali, 57, evaded layers of security to board a flight to France without a ticket or passport in November. On Thursday, she was convicted in Brooklyn federal court of being a stowaway. Sentencing guidelines call for zero to six months in prison. Ms. Dali, a U.S. resident who had emigrated from Russia, wore a red turtleneck underneath an army-green jacket, listened impassively through a Russian-speaking interpreter as the jury foreman read the verdict. The verdict wrapped up a trial in which federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York highlighted shocking security breaches. The incident raised concerns about how someone could have boarded an international flight without showing a passport or a ticket during one of the year's busiest travel periods. Ms. Dali rejected a plea deal, insisting on going to trial despite a low likelihood of winning, and took the unusual step of testifying in her own defense. Ms. Dali repeatedly interrupted the trial by talking, and, on Tuesday, she asked to personally question witnesses, a request that Judge Ann M. Donnelly denied. 'Ms. Dali, please let your lawyer talk for you,' Judge Donnelly said. The basics were not in dispute. On Nov. 26, Ms. Dali boarded Delta Flight 264 from New York to Paris with no boarding pass or passport. She had arrived at Kennedy by AirTrain and was turned away from an initial security screening after she could not produce a boarding pass. Then, Ms. Dali tried to enter through a line for flight crews and airport employees, but was directed to the main screening area. Ms. Dali subsequently avoided the podium where a Transportation Security Administration official would have checked her identification, and she then went through security with her bags, an airport security manager testified. At the gate, Ms. Dali evaded a ticket check by walking in the middle of two lines of passengers. In an interview with an F.B.I. agent on Dec. 4, Ms. Dali said that, though France was the 'worst country,' she had to go there because she was being poisoned by the U.S. government with phosphates and polonium. Limping up to the stand on Wednesday, Ms. Dali calmly answered questions from her lawyer and a prosecutor, using an interpreter. In Ms. Dali's retelling, she arrived at Terminal 4 and 'just walked onto the airplane.' She hid in a bathroom for most of the flight, where she was 'throwing up blood,' she testified. Cleomie Meme, a flight attendant, testified that about an hour into the flight, she noticed that one of the bathrooms had been locked for a long time and knocked. Ms. Dali, inside with both of her bags, opened the door and mimed that she was about to vomit. Concerned, Ms. Meme offered Ms. Dali water and a plastic bag. Ms. Dali remained in the bathroom for several more hours, before Ms. Meme again knocked. This time, Ms. Dali darted to a bathroom on the other side of the plane. The pursuit went on. Ms. Meme asked Ms. Dali to return to her seat. Ms. Dali meandered through the aisles, and when asked for her name, said 'Amy Hudson.' After Ms. Meme told her she couldn't find that name on the manifest, Ms. Dali said she was, in fact, 'Emily Hudson.' Ms. Meme, who described the stowaway as 'defiant,' eventually persuaded Ms. Dali to sit in a seat at the back of the plane reserved for the crew, and the plane landed less than a minute later. French police officers apprehended her at Charles de Gaulle airport. Brooke Theodora, a prosecutor, told jurors that Ms. Dali 'knew exactly what she was doing.' 'She knew she didn't have a boarding pass, and she knew she needed one,' Ms. Theodora said. In a filing this month, prosecutors wrote that Ms. Dali had tried to fly without papers before. On Nov. 24, she went through security at Bradley International Airport outside Hartford, Conn., without a boarding pass, prosecutors said. In February 2024, Ms. Dali was found hiding in a bathroom in a secure location at Miami International Airport. The incidents were 'calculated trial runs,' Ms. Theodora said. Ms. Dali first appeared in court on Dec. 5 and was released on bail. Days later, she was arrested again after she removed her GPS monitor and traveled on a bus toward the Canadian border. Ms. Dali's lawyer, Michael Schneider, acknowledged that Ms. Dali had boarded the plane without proper documentation, but argued that the blame lay with the T.S.A. and the airline. 'Ms. Dali wanted to leave the country,' Mr. Schneider told jurors. 'She kept knocking, and Delta opened the door.' In his closing statement, Mr. Schneider seemed to acknowledge the improbability of an acquittal for Ms. Dali. 'To be fair, you might be sitting there like, 'Buddy, everyone knows you need a ticket to get on a plane,'' he said.
