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The unhinged Russian stowaway who snuck onto a Paris-bound flight at JFK Airport last year gained access to the plane by blending in with a group of passengers and sneaking past two distracted gate agents, new video captured.
Svetlana Dali, 57, was spotted on surveillance footage as she navigated past several security checkpoints before boarding the Delta jet at the Queens airport on Nov. 26, 2024.
Dali was waved through a security screening checkpoint before a female TSA agent conducted a quick body pat-down before allowing the woman through to the terminal, according to video from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and obtained by the Associated Press.
She had allegedly been turned away at one security checkpoint for not having a boarding pass, but took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday traveling chaos and snuck through a screening area for airport employees.
“The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft,” a TSA spokesperson told The Post in November.
The Russian citizen, who held a US green card, carried her bags to the Delta gate, where she waited to board Flight 264 bound for Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Dressed in a coat and gray hood, Dali blended in with a group of five travelers who were being checked in by the two gate agents and walked onto the jetway unnoticed.
After boarding the plane, the stowaway hid inside one of the lavatories during takeoff.
A flight attendant spotted her inside one of the bathrooms towards the end of the seven-hour flight.
She was restrained in a seat and was detained by French police upon landing at the airport.
Dali was booted off two return flights after she caused a disruptive outburst on the first attempt and was barred by the airline for the second trip.
She was eventually extradited back to New York, where law enforcement officials waited for her.
A federal grand jury indicted her in January for one count of stowaway on an aircraft.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Dali was initially released from jail under conditions of wearing an ankle monitor, which she ditched during her attempt to cross the border into Canada on a Greyhound bus from Buffalo.
The brazen attempt to flee the country came only 10 days after she was released by a judge and ordered to wear the GPS tracker.
She had been staying at a friend’s home in Philadelphia at the time.
Border officials arrested her after she failed to provide a passport and they discovered an active warrant out for her because she breached her release agreements.
After her latest arrest, she was ordered to be held in a Brooklyn federal lockup.
A trial is set for May, but lawyers are reportedly working on a plea deal before the court date.
With Post wires
English (US)