PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia woman facing charges for allegedly stowing away on an overseas flight to Paris last month was arrested again on Monday after trying to flee to Canada, authorities said.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was stopped by authorities in upstate New York on Monday as she attempted to take a Greyhound bus to cross the border into Canada, officials said. She has a hearing scheduled in federal court in Buffalo on Tuesday.
Dali was wearing an ankle monitor to ensure she would not leave the Philadelphia area, but officials said she cut it off on Sunday and left the Northeast Philadelphia home of the friend she was allowed to stay with. That friend called police, sources told NBC10, and authorities tracked her down.
Dali, a Russian national who is a permanent U.S. resident, managed to stow away on a Delta flight from New York City to Paris two days before Thanksgiving, authorities said. Initially, Dali was unable to get through a TSA checkpoint because she did not have a boarding pass, but she was able to blend in with a large European flight crew and made it through the screening lane for airline employees.
Then, she managed to slip by Delta agents who were helping other passengers at the gate and got on a plane to Paris, according to the criminal complaint.
The flight crew later discovered that Dali did not have a boarding pass, and French authorities took her into custody after landing. Days later, Dali was put on a plane back to the U.S. and the FBI took her into custody.
During a bail hearing earlier this month, a federal prosecutor in New York said Dali also tried to fly for free at different airports. At Miami International Airport, investigators said she was denied entry into a secured area to get to departing flights.