THIS is the dramatic moment a Russian stowaway in France was flown back to New York after sneaking onboard unnoticed.
Svetlana Dali, aged 57, managed to breach multiple layers of security at John F. Kennedy airport on November 30 in order to board Delta Flight 264 headed for Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.
The Russian national hid in the bathroom before she was snared by a flight attendant shortly before landing.
She was detained in France before she was placed on a flight back to the US.
Video footage captured the moment when Dali was escorted back onto a flight bound for JFK airport in New York, as the initial attempt to return her on Saturday failed due to her disruptive behavior.
The woman was wearing a face mask and pink hat as she was escorted by two French security officials.
She could be seen sitting in the middle and occasionally resting her head on the seat in front of her.
Dali is expected to be arrested when she lands in New York.
Despite her efforts, the Russian stowaway was denied entry into France by French authorities, citing her lack of valid travel documents as the reason for refusal, and she was subsequently placed in a designated waiting area.
Delta and TSA said it they have launched an investigation to find out how Dali allegedly snuck past security checkpoints.
According to the New York Post, a law enforcement source said: “There were multiple failures.
“This was a serious breach of security.”
Authorities said Dali has legal residency in the US but has a Russian passport.
An investigation into how Dali was able to evade airport security and board the Delta flight is underway.
A Delta spokesperson said: “Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security.
“That’s why Delta is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”
TSA spokesperson Daniel Valez said the TSA is taking the incident seriously.
He said: “TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK.”
It’s not the first time someone has managed to sneak on board a flight undetected.
A major security probe was launched after an extraordinary series of blunders allowed a man to fly from the UK to New York without a passport or boarding pass in December.
UK Home Secretary James Cleverly was “demanding answers” after the passenger boarded a British Airways flight from Heathrow without any documentation whatsoever.
The jaw-dropping security lapse was said to have been thought “impossible, post 9/11” and has left Border Force, Heathrow Airport and BA bosses sweating on repercussions.
One source told The Sun: “The man could have been carrying anything on him. It beggars belief this could have happened in an age of high-tech, anti-terror led airport surveillance.”
The Sun understands that jobless Craig Sturt, 46, turned up at the UK’s biggest airport on December 23 last year and avoided check-in, heading straight to the boarding pass security gates at Terminal 5.
Incredibly, despite the building heaving with cops and airport agents, he walked through the automatic gates behind another passenger in front of him.
He then was ushered through a series of security checkpoints, and passport control, without showing any paperwork.
Each time he simply ‘tailgated’ the passenger ahead of him.
Mr Sturt was then able to board a bus at a BA departure gate alongside hundreds of other passengers flying to the US for Christmas.
He was welcomed onto the British Airways jumbo despite having no boarding pass, and helped himself to free food and drinks throughout the long-haul flight.