Kevin Svetlana Dali has a peculiar habit of boarding international flights without a ticket, and airport security hasn’t figured out how to stop her. The Russian citizen and U.S. permanent resident was arrested in Milan, Italy, on Thursday, February 27, 2026, after she allegedly snuck aboard a United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey. This was her second successful stowaway trip to Europe in a little over a year, and it’s raising hard questions about how someone with a known criminal record for this exact offense managed to do it all over again.
- Dali was already on probation for a 2024 stowaway conviction when she was taken into custody at Milan’s Malpensa Airport after allegedly sneaking onto a flight from Newark.
- She made it past ticketing agents, and the United in-flight crew didn’t realize she was aboard without a ticket until the Boeing 777-200 was already over the Atlantic Ocean.
- The FBI is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Transportation Security Administration on what officials are calling an open investigation.
How She Got on the Plane
Dali snuck by airline employees at Gate C74 at Newark Liberty International Airport and onto United Flight 19 on Wednesday night, according to a law enforcement source. The Boeing 777-200, which seats 364, departed Newark at 5:51 p.m. ET, according to FlightAware.
She apparently made it past the ticket agent and wasn’t noticed by the crew until the flight was over the Atlantic. While aboard, Dali pretended she couldn’t hear questions from the flight attendants about whether she had a ticket or if she had boarded improperly. CBS News reports that Dali is believed to have helped herself to one of roughly 20 empty seats on the plane.
Flight attendants discovered her far enough into the flight that the airline decided to continue on to Milan. When the plane landed in Milan at 7:09 a.m. Thursday, she was detained by law enforcement. After landing, a source said Dali even asked for asylum before Italian authorities were alerted about her past.
A Pattern That Stretches Back Years
This wasn’t Dali’s first time pulling this kind of thing. Not even close. In November 2024, Dali successfully stowed away on Delta Air Lines Flight 264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Security video released after her arrest showed Dali bypassing an airport employee in charge of a crew member security checkpoint and walking with airline staff past the station where her ID and boarding pass would have been checked.
In court, Dali said she walked onto the Paris-bound plane without being asked for a boarding pass. Prosecutors say she hid in a bathroom for several hours and wasn’t discovered until the plane was nearing Paris.
But there’s even more to the story. Dali tried to stow away on a plane at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, two days before she made it onto the plane at JFK. That airport serves much of central Connecticut, including towns like Wallingford, CT, and surrounding communities. And in February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered her hiding in a bathroom in a secured area of the international arrivals zone of Miami International Airport.
Dali was convicted in May 2025 for sneaking onto a Delta Air Lines flight to Paris at JFK. In July 2025, a federal judge sentenced her to time served on one felony count of being a stowaway, with one year of supervised release. Her defense lawyer filed documents stating that Dali suffers from a “delusional disorder.”
What Went Wrong With Security
The big question on everyone’s mind is obvious: how does a convicted stowaway, who is supposed to be under federal supervision, board another transatlantic flight without a ticket? TSA officials and Port Authority police at Newark International Airport are reviewing surveillance footage to see how she got past security and got on board.
The TSA and United Airlines are also facing internal reviews to determine how a repeat offender was able to breach security at one of the nation’s busiest transit hubs. United Airlines released a brief statement saying the company’s safety and security are its top concerns and that it was cooperating with authorities.
There was also a missed opportunity before the Newark incident. Dali was due to be re-arrested by Connecticut State Police after her July sentencing because of a pending criminal case tied to the Bradley Airport attempt. But Connecticut authorities didn’t come to retrieve her, and she was released from federal custody. That slip let her walk free with a new chance to repeat her behavior.
Dali will likely face federal charges for violating the terms of her supervised release, in addition to new charges related to the Newark stowaway incident. She is expected to be extradited back to the United States.
Why This Case Keeps Making Headlines
Airport security works in layers. ID checks, boarding pass scans, gate agents, and flight crew are all supposed to catch someone who doesn’t belong on a plane. And yet Dali has beaten every one of those layers multiple times. She told the judge during her first sentencing that she snuck onto the flight to seek medical treatment because she believed the U.S. military had poisoned her.
Dali’s repeated escapes expose real gaps in a system most travelers assume is airtight. Passengers passing through airports like JFK, Newark, and even smaller regional hubs expect that nobody is getting on a plane without proper documentation. Dali proved that assumption wrong, and then proved it wrong again. Until those weaknesses in the boarding process are addressed, this story will keep forcing uncomfortable conversations about how safe air travel really is.
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