NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who evaded security to be a stowaway on a New York-to-Paris flight last month claims she'd tried to sneak into secure areas of other U.S. airports before in a bid to travel without a ticket, a prosecutor said Friday.
Svetlana Dali, 57, told investigators that she had tried to travel for free at several domestic airports, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brooke Theodora said at a bail hearing as she described concerns by the government that Dali might flee while awaiting trial on a stowaway charge.
Theodora said those attempts included one last February at Miami International Airport, where Dali was turned away as she tried to sneak into a secure area by going through a customs processing area to reach departing flights.
The prosecutor made the remarks as she urged that bail conditions be strict enough to ensure Dali, an unemployed Russian woman with permanent U.S. residency, would attend her court hearings.
Dali, who wore a brown jailhouse uniform and entered a courtroom limping with a cane, spoke to her lawyer through a Russian interpreter. Earlier, she'd been treated and released from a hospital for treatment of an undisclosed nature. The hospital's identification card was on her wrist.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Marutollo agreed to release Dali with electronic monitoring and strict pretrial conditions, including a ban from all airports and a requirement that she live at the Philadelphia home of a man she met at church functions and submit to a curfew.
He also told her that she must undergo any mental health treatment required by the pretrial services department, an arm of Brooklyn federal court.
Her court-appointed lawyer, Michael Schneider, said that his client, who has no criminal history after being a permanent resident of the U.S. for more than a decade, was involved in “what could have been an aberrant act in a certain mental health state that's not going to happen in the future.”
At a hearing Thursday, Schneider said the charge against her was minor and that her offense was comparable to jumping a turnstile to enter the city's subway system.
Theodora objected to the comparison at Friday's hearing, saying the offense was serious and raised “very significant national security concerns and very significant public security risks for obvious reasons.”
Schneider said Friday in court that the stowaway charge was unlikely to result in a prison sentence “unless she does something stupid.”
According to a criminal complaint, Dali flew to Paris as a stowaway on a Delta Air Lines flight on Nov. 26 before returning to Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday.
The document said she snuck past Transportation Security Administration officers by hiding amid a flight crew entering a special lane for airline employees as she underwent security screening but never had to display a ticket.
She then dodged airline employees scanning tickets to board a flight bound for Charles de Gaulle Airport, only to be discovered aboard the plane illegally once it was in the air, the complaint says.
When the flight arrived in Paris on Nov. 27, French law enforcement authorities met her at the gate and detained her before she entered customs, it says.
Delta Air Lines has said in a statement that a review concluded that its security infrastructure was sound and that “deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event.”
It said it was taking measures to ensure such a breach does not occur again.
"Nothing is of greater importance than safety and security,” the airline said.
FILE - A vehicle stops at Terminal 1 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Feb. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Azerbaijan on Thursday observed a nationwide day of mourning for the victims of the air crash that killed 38 people and left all 29 survivors injured as speculation mounted about a possible cause of the crash that remained unknown.
Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 was en route from Azerbaijan's capital of Baku to the Russian city of Grozny in the North Caucasus on Wednesday when it was diverted for reasons yet unclear and crashed while making an attempt to land in Aktau in Kazakhstan after flying east across the Caspian Sea.
The plane went down about 3 kilometers (around 2 miles) from Aktau. Cellphone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball. Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft lying upside in the grass.
On Thursday, national flags were lowered across Azerbaijan, traffic across the country stopped at noon, and signals were sounded from ships and trains as the country observed a nationwide moment of silence.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said that the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.
“The information provided to me is that the plane changed its course between Baku and Grozny due to worsening weather conditions and headed to Aktau airport, where it crashed upon landing,” he said.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said that preliminary information indicated that the pilots diverted to Aktau after a bird strike led to an emergency on board.
According to Kazakh officials, those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhs and three Kyrgyzstan nationals.
As the official crash investigation started, theories abounded about a possible cause, with some commentators alleging that holes seen in the plane's tail section possibly indicate that it could have come under fire from Russian air defense systems fending off a Ukrainian drone attack.
Ukrainian drones had previously attacked Grozny, the provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, and other regions in the country's North Caucasus. Some Russian media claimed that another drone attack on Chechnya happened on Wednesday, although it wasn't officially confirmed.
Osprey Flight Solutions, an aviation security firm based in the United Kingdom, warned its clients that the “Azerbaijan Airlines flight was likely shot down by a Russian military air-defense system.” Osprey provides analysis for carriers still flying into Russia after Western airlines halted their flights during the war.
Osprey CEO Andrew Nicholson said that the company had issued more than 200 alerts regarding drone attacks and air defense systems in Russia during the war.
“This incident is a stark reminder of why we do what we do,” Nicholson wrote online. “It is painful to know that despite our efforts, lives were lost in a way that could have been avoided.”
Asked about the claims that the plane had been fired upon by air defense assets, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “it would be wrong to make hypotheses before investigators make their verdict.”
Officials in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have similarly avoided comment on a possible cause of the crash, saying it will be up to investigators to determine it.
Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Aida Sultanova in London, contributed to this report.
In this image taken from video released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers transport wounded passengers from a medical plane after the Azerbaijani Airline crashed, near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, upon their arrival at the Zhukovsky airport outside Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by the administration of Mangystau region, rescuers prepare to carry a wounded passenger near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, Thursday, Dec. 26 , 2024, after a plane of Azerbaijani Airline crashed. (The Administration of Mangystau Region via AP)
In this photo provided by Azerbaijan's Presidential Press Office, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, center, holds a meeting following an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 plane crash, in Baku, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (Azerbaijani Presidential Press Office via AP)
In this image released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers carry a wounded passenger near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, Thursday, Dec. 26 , 2024, after a plane of Azerbaijani Airline crashed. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this image released by the Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers prepare to carry a wounded passenger near the Kazakhstani city of Aktau, Thursday, Dec. 26 , 2024, after a plane of Azerbaijani Airline crashed. (Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers work at the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
In this photo released by Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry Press Service, rescuers work at the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Kazakhstan's Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP)
The wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lays on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Azamat Sarsenbayev)
In this photo taken from a video released by the administration of Mangystau region, the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (The Administration of Mangystau Region via AP)
In this photo taken from a video released by the administration of Mangystau region, the wreckage of Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 lies on the ground near the airport of Aktau, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Dec. 25, 2024. (The Administration of Mangystau Region via AP)
