PARIS –
A Russian woman who stowed away on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris last week is on her way back to the United States.
French authorities have identified the woman as Svetlana Dali.
Dali left Paris on Wednesday aboard a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly after 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) and is en route to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
She was escorted onto the Delta Air Lines-operated plane by two French security officials. “Everything is going to plan,” said an airport official.
She sat quietly in the back of the aircraft in the middle aisle. Occasionally she leaned her head against the seat in front of her, staring down at the floor or closed her eyes and listened to music.
She was flanked by security officials on both sides.
Two previous attempts to send Dali back to the US were abandoned after she started screaming after boarding a plane Saturday and on Tuesday when Delta refused to fly her after she boarded. Delta has declined to comment on its reasons for refusing to transport her.
Wednesday’s flight is scheduled to arrive in New York at 5:25 p.m. ET, and US authorities will meet Dali at the airport for questioning.
“I’m a little bit nervous. She passed security which means there was a failure somewhere,” Zaid Haddad, a passenger on Wednesday’s flight, told CNN.
“I’m glad there’s security with her.”
How she snuck past airport security
The initial incident, in which Dali somehow sneaked onto a plane on one of the busiest travel days of the year, has raised serious questions about airport security after she was able to bypass multiple checkpoints.
Dali first bypassed an airport terminal employee in charge of the line for the Known Crewmember checkpoint at JFK Airport’s Terminal 4 and bypassed stations where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration told CNN.
At the gate, she placed herself in the middle of what appeared to be a family traveling together, according to a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. She was not carrying any prohibited items, according to a TSA spokesperson.
Asked repeatedly to describe what took place at the gate, Delta has not commented.
Onboard, Dali managed to avoid being easily discovered by hiding in the lavatories, a passenger on the airplane said he overheard flight attendants say.
“I overheard the flight attendants talking about it with the pilots,” New York City real estate broker Rob Jackson told CNN. “They said this person was in one lavatory and then would exit and walk to a different lavatory and go in there for a long time,” he said.
Who is Svetlana Dali?
A Paris airport official identified Dali as a 57-year-old Russian national.
Records indicate Dali once lived in the Philadelphia area.
CNN has attempted to contact Dali’s family and friends to find out more about her.
Authorities have not said whether Dali has tried to sneak onto a plane before, or whether she was previously known to law enforcement. It is unclear how long she had been in the United States.
TSA preparing civil case, spokesperson says
Authorities in New York will be at the airport waiting for Dali when her plane lands.
Inspectors from the TSA are preparing a civil case against Dali after reviewing airport security video from inside JFK Airport, agency spokesperson Alexa Lopez told CNN.
“The TSA will open civil cases against passengers when there’s evidence that procedures may have been violated,” Lopez said. The TSA cannot bring criminal charges, though it can refer them to the Justice Department.
Law enforcement authorities want to question Dali about how she evaded airport security and determine whether or not to bring charges, according to a senior law enforcement official.
Delta said it is working with law enforcement and conducting an investigation of its own.
“Nothing is of greater importance than matters of safety and security,” a Delta spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”
CNN has reached out to Delta to ask whether Dali will be banned from future flights with the airline.
CNN’s Mark Morales, John Miller, Pete Muntean, Taylor Romine and Sara Smart contributed to this report.
