A woman who stowed away on an international flight in 2024 without a passport or ticket has been arrested and detained in Italy, after she boarded a flight from Newark to Milan without a boarding pass, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Svetlana Dali was detained at Malpensa Airport after she boarded United Airlines Flight 19 without a ticket, after evading airport security and gate agents, according to the people, who asked not to be named because it was an ongoing law enforcement matter.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for United Airlines said it was “investigating this incident and working with the appropriate authorities.”
It was the latest bizarre incident in the traveling saga of Ms. Dali, who was convicted last year of stowing away on a flight from New York to Paris in November 2024, an event that exposed a shocking security breach during one of the busiest times of year for air travel.
She evaded the podium where a Transportation Security Administration official would have checked her identification, before eluding gate agents by blending into a crowd that was boarding the flight.
After boarding the plane to Paris, Ms. Dali hid in bathrooms for most of the flight. Eventually, after cajoling from a flight attendant, Ms. Dali exited the bathroom but then meandered around the plane, saying her name was Amy Hudson when asked who she was.
Ms. Dali was flown back to the United States in December 2024 and made a court appearance. She then tried to remove her GPS monitor and flee the country on a bus to Canada, but was detained in Buffalo.
Ms. Dali insisted on going to trial last year, rejecting a plea deal, despite little chance of winning an acquittal. She took the unusual step of testifying in her own defense and appeared agitated during court proceedings.
The Paris flight wasn’t her first attempt at stowing away, prosecutors said at trial. Earlier in November 2024, Ms. Dali went through security at Bradley International Airport outside Hartford, Conn., without a boarding pass. In February of that year, she was found hiding in a bathroom in a secure location at Miami International Airport.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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