Stowaway who flew from New York to Paris removed after creating disturbance on return flight to U.S.

A woman who snuck onto a Delta Air Lines flight from New York City to Paris earlier this week without a boarding pass was removed from a return flight Saturday after creating a disturbance prior to takeoff.

CBS News has confirmed that the stowaway created a disruption Saturday on Delta Flight No. 265, bound from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

She was removed by French law enforcement, causing a delay of more than two hours before the flight’s eventual departure. She will not be returned to the U.S. on Saturday and will remain in French custody for the time being, CBS News learned.

French authorities had escorted her to the plane but were not traveling with her. She became disruptive while on board and police were called to remove her.

Although her name has not been released by authorities, two people familiar with the matter identified the woman to CBS News Saturday as 57-year-old Svetlana Dali.

The woman has a driver’s license showing she is a Philadelphia resident. She is in the U.S. on a green card, according to a person familiar who did not immediately know what her native country was. The French Ministry of the Interior identified her as a Russian national.  

The situation initially unfolded Tuesday, when the woman boarded Delta Flight No. 265 from JFK Airport to Paris without a boarding pass. The flight was not sold out, and she was discovered when a flight attendant became concerned that the woman was making frequent and lengthy visits to various lavatories aboard the Boeing 767-400ER, according to a source familiar with the incident.  

French police came aboard the plane after it landed and took her into custody. 

At this time, U.S. federal authorities do not plan to charge her with a federal crime, one person familiar with the matter told CBS News. She may, however, face state criminal charges in New York, possibly a state count of criminal trespassing. 

Passenger Rob Jackson, who shot video of French authorities coming onto the plane after it landed in Paris, told CBS News he noticed the flight attendants behaving oddly as the flight was descending.

“I heard them saying, like, we have a passenger who we think was hiding in the lavatory during takeoff,” Jackson said. “She does not have a seat. She did not have a boarding pass. And basically, she’s a stowaway.”

A Transportation Security Administration source told CBS News that the woman went through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at a checkpoint in JFK Airport after somehow appearing to evade the document and ID check portion of the TSA process. Her bags were also scanned for prohibited items before she went to the gate and snuck onto the flight, the source said.

A TSA spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the woman “without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items” and then “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”

After getting through TSA security, it’s unclear how exactly the woman boarded the plane without showing a boarding pass or passport to Delta staff.

French law enforcement and the TSA are separately investigating. The woman could be subject to a civil penalty or fine for bypassing the document check process.

Kris Van Cleave

Emmy Award-winning journalist Kris Van Cleave is the senior transportation correspondent for CBS News based in Phoenix, Arizona, where he also serves as a national correspondent reporting for all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.