Russian stowaway says she snuck onto Paris-bound flight at JFK to ‘save my life' in deluded courtroom rant
The delusional Russian stowaway who shockingly snuck onto a Paris-bound flight at JFK Airport insisted at her sentencing Thursday that she tried to skip town to 'save' herself from a purported poisoning — and will stay locked up on charges from a separate brazen bid to get on a different flight.
'My actions were directed toward only one purpose: to save my life,' Svetlana Dali, 57, said during a meandering rant in Brooklyn federal court, where she blamed her behavior on being 'poisoned' by an 'unknown criminal group.'
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Judge Ann Donnelly sentenced the mentally ill Dali, who has been held at a Brooklyn lockup for seven months, to time served at the feds' request — after noting that she'd put the rest of the passengers on the November 2024 flight at risk.
3 Dali was able to brazenly sneak onto the November 2024 flight to Paris by slipping past gate agents, trial evidence revealed.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey via AP
'It's a danger to the public. It's a danger to people working on the plane,' she told Dali after patiently waiting for her to finish her 45-minute speech about allegedly being poisoned with polonium and other 'military grade chemicals.'
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3 Dali managed to stroll onto the Delta jet by taking advantage of distracted gate agents in the crowded airport.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Dali claimed to have been 'intoxicated' by the alleged 'poisoning' during the stunning Nov. 26, 2024, episode where she managed to evade multiple security checkpoints and board the Delta jet without a ticket or passport by walking past distracted gate agents.
'My actions, what I did, were simply … there were circumstances beyond my control,' she said, wearing a tan sweater and black reading glasses and speaking through a Russian interpreter.
Dali will eventually be subject to one year of supervised release — where she won't be allowed to travel without permission — but she won't be getting out of jail right away.
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She remained in custody after Thursday's hearing and will soon be shipped to Connecticut to face state charges carrying a possible 5-year sentence for allegedly trying to sneak onto a flight at Bradley International in Hartford, Connecticut, just 48 hours before her antics at JFK, authorities said.
Dali, a Russian citizen who is a legal permanent US resident, was convicted of one count of being a stowaway on an aircraft in May after a three day trial where she made the unusual decision to testify.
Trial evidence revealed a shocking lapse at the international airport, where Dali went through security with her bags but then dodged TSA agents who would have checked her passport and boarding pass by tagging along with a Air Europa flight crew.
3 The mentally ill Russia-born woman will remain in custody while facing a separate state case in Connecticut for allegedly trying sneaking onto another flight just
Robert Mecea
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After walking onto the plane undetected, Dali spent most of the seven and a half hour trip to Paris in the airplane bathroom, pretending to be sick, but was finally discovered by a flight attendant who demanded that she take a seat as the plane was landing, evidence revealed.
Dali gave the flight attendant two fake names when asked to identify herself — 'Amy Hudson' and, when that wasn't convincing, 'Emily Hudson' — and was arrested by French authorities and sent back to the US.
Jurors saw video of Dali illegally boarding the plane, before she later admitted to federal agents that she knew what she did was wrong.
She was released without bail after her November arrest, but was arrested again in January and sent to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center after cutting off her ankle bracelet and trying to board a Greyhound bus to Canada, prosecutors said.
Dali's attorney, Michael Schneider, told the court that Dali suffers from 'mental health issues' and that she had a 'traumatic history as a child and young adult,' without getting into details. The lawyer wrote in a legal filing to the court earlier this year that Dali has experienced 'delusions.'
Scheider, a public defender, told the judge Thursday that he hopes to be one day be able to help Dali seek help at a treatment shelter and 'move on with her life.'
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