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Svetlana ‘the stowaway’ Dali allegedly snuck onto United flight at Newark airport: Sources

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Booking photo for Svetlana Dali. (Niagara County Sheriff’s Office)

(NEWARK, N.J.) — Svetlana Dali is at it again.

Dali, who previously was convicted in Brooklyn federal court of being a stowaway on a Delta Air Lines flight out of New York’s JFK Airport to Paris, allegedly snuck onto a United flight at New Jersey’s Newark airport on Wednesday night, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The United flight landed in Milan and she is now in Italian custody, sources said.

United said in a statement, “Safety and security are our highest priorities. We are investigating this incident and working with the appropriate authorities.”

In July 2025, the Russian national was sentenced to time served for the New York-to-Paris flight she took in November 2024.

Dali told the judge she snuck onto the flight to seek treatment because she said the U.S. military had poisoned her.

“My actions were directed toward only one purpose: to save my life,” Dali said through a Russian interpreter.

Two days before Dali went through security at JFK Airport and walked onto the Delta plane without a boarding pass, she allegedly accessed a secure area of the departures terminal at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, prosecutors said. Earlier in 2024, customs agents found Dali hiding in a bathroom in a secure area of the Miami International Airport, prosecutors said.  

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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