How a Stowaway at J.F.K. Airport Made It All the Way to Paris

New York|How a Stowaway at J.F.K. Airport Made It All the Way to Paris

A woman who stowed away on a flight from New York to France last week managed to do so without a passport, much less a boarding pass, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.

Svetlana Dali, 57, exploited weaknesses in the security system at Kennedy International Airport during the busiest period of the year for air travel by blending in with crowds of boarding travelers, prosecutors said.

First, she infiltrated a flight crew and passed through a checkpoint with them. Then, she slipped past Delta Air Lines employees, who failed to ask for a boarding pass, and onto a fully booked plane, they said. While on the plane Ms. Dali attempted to avoid detection during the seven-hour flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris by ducking into the aircraft’s bathrooms.

Ms. Dali, who is believed to have migrated to the United States from Russia, was arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Thursday on a charge of “secreting aboard a vessel.” She was arrested at Kennedy Airport by F.B.I. agents upon her return Wednesday evening after spending about a week in the custody of French authorities.

Ms. Dali faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison if found guilty of sneaking aboard an aircraft in an incident that raises troubling questions about airport security. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy ordered Ms. Dali to be held until 2 p.m. Friday while her bail was decided and her residence was verified.

Prosecutors wanted to ensure she had a stable residence, said Brooke Theodora, an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “We’re concerned for a risk of flight here rather than the nature of the offense.”