Schmuggler on Paris flight must appear in court in New York

Schmuggler on Paris flight must appear in court in New York

The extraordinary journey of a blind passenger who came from New York to Paris on a Delta-Air-Lines flight last week alerted both aviation experts and travelers.

who is Svetlana Dali?

The 57-year-old Russian Svetlana Dali was identified by the French authorities as the uninvited passenger. She was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday when she was deported to the USA. Their first court date is scheduled for Thursday, the public prosecutor's office of the eastern district of New York said.

dali is expected to be charged with the unauthorized ride on an aircraft without consent and could receive up to five years in prison.

what exactly happened?

Dali sneaked on board the Delta flight 264 from JFK International Airport in New York to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. In order to remain undetected, she hid in the aircraft waterway so as not to be noticed by the crew, a passenger reported.

Rob Jackson, a real estate agent from New York City, said CNN: "I heard the flight attendants how they talked to the pilots. They said that this person was in a washroom and then went into another washroom and stayed there for a long time." The crew members only informed the passengers about the unwanted passenger after landing in the French capital.

reactions and follow

Jackson added: "The first announcement to the passengers that there was a problem was when we parked at the gate. They instructed us to stay because the French police would enter the plane to take care of 'a serious security problem'." In a video recorded by Jackson, one voice says about the Intercom: "People, here the captain speaks, we are just waiting for the police to be on board. They may already be here and have instructed us to keep all passengers on the plane until we clarify the additional passenger." Dali was arrested by the French police because she was not entitled to enter the country and the return to the USA was ordered.

previous asylum applications and further information

records show that Dali used to live in the Philadelphia area. The authorities have not confirmed whether she tried to get on a plane beforehand or whether it was already known to the law enforcement authorities. It is unclear how long she was in the USA.

According to an official representative of the Paris Airport, Dali had applied for asylum in France a few years ago. After her arrest at Paris Airport, she was scheduled for the return trip to the USA on Saturday, but was removed from a Delta flight to New York after donating unrest before departure.

On Wednesday she finally started the trip. In a black jacket, a light gray hat and a pink scarf, Dali was calm in the middle aisle in the back of the plane, flanked by two security officers. During the flight, she occasionally leaned her head in front of her, stared at the floor or closed her eyes and listened to music. Dali refused to speak to CNN after landing.

safety precautions questioned

As Dali managed to avoid the security controls, remains unclear. She ignored an employee who was responsible for the Known Crewmember Checkpoint at JFK Terminal 4 and passed the controls in which her ID and her boarding pass was verified, according to a spokesman for the transportation security administration. At the gate, she joined a group that looked like a family. However, it was found that she had no forbidden objects.

Delta Airlines provided no further information about the incident at the gate on request. The airline said that it had checked its own security measures after the incident and emphasized that its infrastructure was "stable". Delta attributed the incident to a "deviation from the standard procedures", but announced no details on how exactly this happened.

The TSA inspectors also prepare a civil case against Dali after checking the security recordings at the JFK. The TSA cannot file a criminal charges, but can refer the cases to the Ministry of Justice. Industry experts have already referred to the incident as a "wake -up call" for the aviation industry. The former examiner of the US Transport Ministry, Mary Schiavo, said: "This is really a big problem and shows our weaknesses of the world."