NEW YORK – The woman accused of sneaking onto a Delta Air Lines flight from New York City to Paris last week is on her way back to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport Wednesday.
The suspect, identified by two people familiar with the matter as Svetlana Dali, boarded a Delta flight to return to New York from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. She’s being escorted by French law enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.
Dali, 57, is expected to be arrested when she lands Wednesday evening on trespassing and theft of service charges, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News. So far, there are no plans to charge her with a federal crime, a person familiar with the matter told CBS News.
The Philadelphia resident initially managed to sneak past airport security and board a Delta flight to Paris on Nov. 26 without a boarding pass. TSA officials said the woman used a group of passengers to bypass the ID check at JFK before entering the TSA checkpoint. She went through a body scanner, and her bag was flagged during screening for having two bottles of water, which she discarded.
She was discovered as a stowaway while the plane was still in midair and was taken into custody when she landed in Paris and refused entry to France.
CBS News confirmed she created a disruption on her return flight Saturday when authorities initially attempted to take her to the States. She was removed from that flight by French law enforcement, causing a delay of more than two hours.
Kris Van Cleave and
Pat Milton
contributed to this report.