A Russian national previously convicted for stowing away seems to have managed to do it again, this time boarding a flight from Newark Liberty International Airport without a ticket, according to reports.
Svetlana Dali is accused of getting past security at Newark and boarding a flight to Milan on Wednesday, as per a law enforcement official. Living in the U.S., Dali reportedly walked past the ticket counter and wasn’t noticed by the flight crew until the plane was already airborne.
Currently in her late 50s, she has been detained at Malpensa Airport in Milan as of Thursday.
Dali had faced similar charges before in Brooklyn federal court back in November 2024, when she had boarded a Delta flight from New York to Paris without a valid ticket. After that incident, she received a prison sentence along with one year of supervised release in July 2025 and was required to pay a small fine.
In the earlier case, Dali allegedly slipped through security at JFK Airport and was eventually discovered in a bathroom on the plane. She had claimed that she needed to board the flight for medical treatment, believing she was poisoned by the military, but the jury ultimately found her guilty.
She has appealed this ruling, which is still in process at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Court documents indicate that Dali filed a brief in December 2025, with the government expected to respond by March 4, 2026.
There have been other breaches linked to Dali as well. For instance, customs officials reportedly found her hiding in a bathroom in the secure area of Miami International Airport in February 2024. Although she insisted she had just flown in on an Air France flight, records did not confirm her entry or travel history for the past five years.
Prosecutors also noted that she had been in a secure area at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut just two days prior to the JFK incident. On Thursday, an FBI spokeswoman stated that the Newark office is aware of the stowaway situation and is collaborating with both the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages Newark Liberty International Airport, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Fox News Digital has attempted to contact the FBI, TSA, and United Airlines for further comments.
