The stowaway who hid on a flight from New York to Paris has been released, even though a court heard she tried to sneak onto the plane several times before.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was released on her own recognizance and ordered to stay at the home of a friend she knew through church. Judge Joseph Marutollo also banned her from entering any airport.
Federal court in Brooklyn, New York, heard that she had previously tried to board planes at multiple domestic and international airports.
Her most recent attempt was in Miami in February this year, when she entered the international arrivals hall and walked into a customs area in an attempt to get to the departures.
The court heard that Dali, a Russian national, is engaged but her fiancé lives abroad.
Dali managed to bypass TSA security and aviation checks at New York’s JFK airport and secretly took a Delta flight to Paris two days before Thanksgiving.
French authorities denied her mysterious request for asylum there and the Moscow resident arrived back in the United States on Wednesday under a plan after being removed from an earlier flight for disruptive behavior.
Svetlana Dali, 57, could have slipped past security checkpoints at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday as she sneaked onto a Delta Air Lines flight to Paris
Dali (right), a Russian citizen with legal residency in the US, was even able to bypass a Delta gate agent to board the flight to Paris despite not having a boarding pass or valid travel documents
Russian mother was seen in footage pleading with flight attendants not to ‘send her back to America’ after she was caught
She was arrested immediately after landing and taken into federal custody.
The maximum penalty for being a stowaway is five years in prison.
But during Friday’s hearing, Judge Marutollo was reluctantly convinced she should be released.
He said he was in a “difficult situation” because he would prefer a third party to guarantee her attendance at court.
This was not possible because Dali did not know anyone in the US who could fill the role.
He said he was “deeply concerned that there was a risk of flight” but ordered her released anyway.
She will have to submit to GPS monitoring and a curfew at the home where she will be staying.
Prosecutor Brooke Theodora said Dali’s actions had raised “very significant national security concerns and significant risks to public safety.”
She said: ‘She told police she tried to travel without a ticket at a number of domestic airports and at least one international airport.’
According to a law enforcement report from February this year, Dali “encountered international arrivals” at Miami airport and “entered a customs area and attempted to penetrate the departures.”
The 57-year-old was arrested Wednesday at JFK Airport and charged in federal court with stowaway on a ship or aircraft without permission.
Passengers filmed her during the nightmare flight and were caught migrating back and forth between the plane’s bathrooms because she didn’t have a seat
Theodora said she did not consider Dali “a danger to the community” but agreed she was a flight risk.
Lawyer Michael Schneider urged the court to give Dali the “benefit of the doubt” and said she understood the seriousness of the case.
Schneider said she wouldn’t make matters worse for herself by committing another offense and that she didn’t even have a passport.
He said her actions could have been due to a mental health episode and that Dali telling police about her previous attempts to board a plane was also to blame.
During the hearing, the judge called Dali’s friend Silouan Mathew, who confirmed over the loudspeaker that Dali would be staying with him and that they had met through church.
As part of the conditions of her release, Dali will be required to submit to a mental health evaluation
The hearing was postponed for an hour because Dali was in a hospital and had to be taken to court.
She was wearing gray prison pants and a tank top and had a white medical bracelet on her left wrist.
Dali spoke only through a Russian interpreter to confirm she understood what was happening.
According to reports, Dali, who did not have a boarding pass, managed to get through a crew member security checkpoint at JFK without her identity being checked.
She passed through a regular security line and boarded the plane through the gate with a family.
At one point during the flight, she reportedly sat in an empty seat, but other times she used different bathrooms to disguise the fact that she didn’t have a ticket, CNN reports.
Airline security experts are calling the incident a “wake-up call.”
Prosecutor Brooke Theodora said Dali’s actions had raised “very significant national security concerns and significant risks to public safety.”
According to a law enforcement report from February this year, Dali “encountered international arrivals” at Miami airport and “entered a customs area and attempted to enter the departure lounge.”
Adding to the concerns, Dali’s ex-husband, during an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, labeled her as “a fantasist” who used him to get a Green Card in the US.
‘When I suddenly saw her on TV, accused of being a stowaway, I thought: I’m not surprised. She is actually very smart, but lives in her own fantasy world,” said Mahdi Dali (62).
“I have no idea why she apparently tried to seek asylum in France or why she said only a judge could bring her back to the US. It’s as if she’s trying to punish the country that opened its doors to her.”
Dali has lived in Philadelphia since her 2014 Moscow wedding to her now ex-husband Mahdi.
She has a daughter and a grandchild in Moscow and claims to have been a real estate lawyer in the Russian capital.
Dali filed a bizarre lawsuit in Philadelphia, claiming she was sold “for $20,000” by a minister of the Russian Federation to be a “slave” for her now ex-husband in America.
It was filed just six days before her attempt to flee to France.
Dali left the court with her head down and used a cane to help her walk.
She said she felt “bad” about being released while her lawyer led her away.
The TSA said Dali was originally checked at JFK Airport and was not carrying any prohibited items, but was found to be “without a boarding pass.”
It is not explained how Dali was allowed through security checkpoints, where passengers’ boarding passes are scanned.
“TSA takes seriously all incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints across the country,” TSA spokesman Daniel Velez said.
“TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checkpoint at JFK.”
When Dali arrived at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, French authorities said she was “denied entry for lack of a valid travel document and placed in a waiting area.”
Since she had a valid U.S. residency permit, French officials decided to send her back a few days later on a return flight to JFK, but Dali planned to stay outside the U.S.
Footage from passengers on the return flight showed Dali again screaming and protesting her deportation, saying she needed “asylum.”
French airport officials also revealed that Dali had previously applied for asylum in France, although they did not say when she made the application or whether it was ever granted.
Several passengers shared their experiences during the flight with Dali, who reportedly tried to avoid staff by walking from bathroom to bathroom after takeoff.
Jairam Dookoo, who was on the original flight to Paris, said Dali initially pretended to try to find her documents before getting into an argument with airline staff.
“It took her 10 minutes to find her bags and find her boarding pass,” he told ABC News. “Which she didn’t have at all.”
Footage of Dali being unruly with airline staff as French authorities tried to deport her back was captured before the plane ever left the ground, and passengers said she panicked almost immediately.
Passenger Natalia Treichler said: ‘She became combative so more flight attendants came in to restrain her.
“Then everything started to escalate.”