Svetlana Dali certainly is tenacious.
The alleged Delta Air Lines stowaway is, once again, making headlines — this time for trying to sneak her way into Canada, reportedly cutting off her ankle monitor before boarding a Greyhound bus to the Great White North.
Dali, a 57-year-old Russian national, was taken into custody in Paris late last month after she snuck onto a Delta Air Lines flight at New York’s JFK International Airport without a boarding pass on Nov. 26 and flew all the way to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, apparently concealing herself by spending long periods of time in the plane’s multiple bathrooms.
She was detained when authorities discovered she didn’t have a valid visa to enter the country, French National Police said at the time.
After two unsuccessful attempts to deport her back to the U.S. — postponed after she “started screaming” and kicking up a fuss once aboard the departing planes — she was finally brought back to American soil on Dec. 4 and arrested by the FBI.
Despite a Dec. 6 court hearing that ordered her not to leave Philadelphia and being outfitted with an ankle monitor until her trial, Dali was not deterred.
She was arrested in Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of New York confirmed.
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Before her latest arrest, she allegedly cut off her monitor and made her way to upstate New York, where she rode a bus toward the Canadian border, the New York Times reported, citing two law enforcement officials. She was arrested while trying to cross the border.
Dali did purchase a ticket for the Greyhound ride, unlike her flight to Paris.
She is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday afternoon.
How did Dali pull off her stowaway attempt?
Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK airport and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.
A TSA spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that “an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”
Delta remained quite tight-lipped, however, telling USA Today in a statement that the breach happened during a “deviation from standard procedures,” but not providing further details. It also insisted that its infrastructure “is sound” after a security review.
A senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told CNN that, at the gate, Dali successfully blended in with a large group of other travellers and slipped by staff at the gate without a ticket.
How did she hide?
One passenger said Dali was moving between the plane’s bathrooms during the duration of the lengthy flight, attempting to dodge flight attendants.
“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.”
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