The stowaway who hid on a flight from New York to Paris has been freed even though a court heard that she tried to sneak on to planes multiple times before.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was released on her own recognizance and ordered to stay at the house of a friend she knew through church. Judge Joseph Marutollo also barred her from entering any airport.
The federal court in Brooklyn, New York, heard that she had previously tried to get on to planes at multiple domestic airports and an international one.
Her most recent effort was in February this year in Miami when she went into the international arrivals area and walked into a customs zone in an effort to get to departures.
The court heard that Dali, a Russian national, is engaged but her fiancé lives overseas.
Dali managed to avoid TSA security and airline checks at New York’s JFK airport to sneak on a Delta flight to Paris two days before Thanksgiving.
French authorities refused her mysterious plea for asylum there and the Moscow native arrived back in the United States on Wednesday on a plan after she was removed from an earlier flight for being disruptive.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was allegedly able to get past security checkpoints at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York on Saturday, sneaking on a Delta Air Lines flight headed to Paris
Dali (right), a Russian national with legal residency in the US, was even able to bypass a Delta gate agent to board the Paris-bound flight despite having no boarding pass or valid travel documents
The Russian native was seen in footage begging flight attendants not to ‘send her back to America’ after she was caught
She was immediately arrested upon landing and taken into federal custody.
The maximum penalty for being a stowaway is five years in prison.
But at Friday’s hearing, Judge Marutollo was reluctantly persuaded that she should be freed.
He said that he found himself in a ‘tough spot’ as he would prefer a third party to guarantee that she would attend court.
This wasn’t possible as Dali didn’t know anyone in the US who could fulfill the role.
He said he was ‘deeply concerned there is a risk of flight’ but ordered her released anyway.
She will have to submit to GPS monitoring and a curfew at the residence she will be staying.
Prosecutor Brooke Theodora said that Dali’s actions had raised ‘very significant national security concerns and significant public safety risks’.
She said: ‘She told law enforcement she tried to travel without a ticket in a number of domestic airports and at least one international one’.
According to a law enforcement report from February this year, Dali ‘came into international arrivals’ at Miami airport and ‘got into a customs area and was trying to get through to departures’.
The 57-year-old was arrested at JFK Airport on Wednesday and was charged in federal court with one count of being a stowaway on a vessel or aircraft without consent
Passengers filmed her throughout the nightmare flight and was caught migrating back and forth between the plane’s bathrooms since she didn’t have a seat
Theodora said she didn’t think Dali was a ‘danger to the community’ but agreed that she was a flight risk.
Defense lawyer Michael Schneider urged the court to give Dali the ‘benefit of the doubt’ and said that she understood the gravity of the matter.
Schneider said she would not make things worse for herself by committing another offense and that she didn’t even have a passport.
He said that her actions could have been due to a mental health episode and that Dali telling law enforcement about her previous attempts to board planes was down to that as well.
During the hearing, the judge called Dali’s friend Silouan Mathew who confirmed on speakerphone that Dali would be staying with him and that they had met through church.
As part of the terms of her release, Dali will have to submit to a mental health evaluation
The hearing was delayed by an hour as Dali was in a hospital and needed to be brought to the court.
She was wearing gray prison-issue pants and a top and had a white medical bracelet on her left wrist.
Dali only spoke through a Russian interpreter to confirm she understood what was going on.
Reports have claimed that Dali, who didn’t have a boarding pass, managed to get through a crew member security checkpoint at JFK without having her identity checked.
She went through a regular security line and got onto the plane by going through the gate with a family.
At some point on the flight she reportedly sat in an empty seat but other times she used different bathrooms to disguise the fact she didn’t have a ticket, CNN has reported.
Airline security experts have called the incident a ‘wake-up call’.
Prosecutor Brooke Theodora said that Dali’s actions had raised ‘very significant national security concerns and significant public safety risks’
According to a law enforcement report from February this year, Dali ‘came into international arrivals’ at Miami airport and ‘got into a customs area and was trying to get through to departures’
Adding to the concern, Dali’s ex-husband has branded her ‘a fantasist’ who used him to get a Green Card in the US, during an exclusive DailyMail.com interview.
‘When I suddenly saw her on TV accused of being a stowaway I thought, I’m not surprised. She’s actually very smart, but lives in her own fantasy world,’ Mahdi Dali, 62, said.
‘I have no idea why she apparently tried to claim asylum in France or why she said only a judge could bring her back to the US. It’s as if she’s trying to punish the country that opened its doors to her.’
Dali has lived in Philadelphia since her 2014 Moscow wedding to her now ex-husband Mahdi.
She has a daughter and grandchild in Moscow and claims to have been a real estate attorney in the Russian capital.
Dali filed a bizarre lawsuit in Philadelphia claiming she was ‘sold for $20,000’ by a Russian Federation minister to be a ‘slave’ to her now ex-husband in America.
It was filed just six days before her attempt to flee to France.
Dali left court with her head down and using a cane to help her walk.
She said she felt ‘bad’ about being let out as her lawyer led her away.
The TSA said Dali was originally screened at JFK Airport and was not carrying any prohibited items, but was found to be ‘without a boarding pass.’
It is not explained how Dali was allowed through the security checkpoint where they scan passengers’ boarding passes.
‘TSA takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously,’ TSA spokesperson Daniel Velez said.
‘TSA will independently review the circumstances of this incident at our travel document checker station at JFK.’
When Dali arrived at Paris’ Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport, French authorities said she was ‘refused entry for lack of valid travel document, and was placed in a waiting area.’
Because she held a valid US residence, French officials moved to send her back on a return flight to JFK days later, however Dali was intent on remaining outside the US.
In footage from passengers on the return flight, Dali was again seen screaming and protesting her deportation, and said she needed ‘asylum.’
French airport officials also revealed that Dali has previously applied for asylum in France, although they did not say when she applied or if it was ever granted.
Several passengers shared their experience of being on the flight with Dali, who reportedly tried to evade staff by walking from bathroom to bathroom after take off.
Jairam Dookoo, who was on the original flight to Paris, said Dali initially pretended to try and find her documents before arguing with airline staff.
‘She took 10 minutes to just find her bags, to try and find her boarding pass,’ he told ABC News. ‘Which she did not have at all.’
Footage of Dali being unruly with airline staff when French authorities tried to deport her back was taken before the jet ever got off the ground, and passengers said she began freaking out almost instantly.
Passenger Natalia Treichler said: ‘She got belligerent, and so more stewardesses came in to try and restrain her.
‘That’s when everything started to escalate.’
