A woman without a boarding pass was able to get on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport on November 26. Transportation Security Administration says the 57-year-old woman snuck through a security checkpoint at John F. Kennedy International Airport by starting off in a lane reserved for airline flight crews. She bypassed stations where her ID and boarding pass should have been checked and was able to board the Delta Airlines flight without a ticket.
She then hid in the bathrooms on the plane for most of the flight to Paris. Flight attendants noticed her odd behavior and that she did not go to a seat. One eyewitness posted on social media saying the passengers were told to “remain seated while French Border authorities came on board to remove the stowaway” passenger.
She was held by French authorities after arriving in the City of Light without proper documentation.
The Russian woman, identified by sources as 57-year-old Svetlana Dali, was eventually flown back to New York with a French escort. The return flight occurred after two abandoned return flights — those abandoned attempts were due to the woman acting out, yelling to be removed and saying that she didn’t want to return to the United States. Officials said she went “off the rails” with a disruptive outburst aboard the plane and was kicked off the flight.