Delta Airlines Stowaway Rants That She Was Poisoned, Needed to Flee U.S. as She's Sentenced to Time Served

The woman convicted of stowing away in the bathrooms of a Delta airlines flight from New York City to Paris last year has been sentenced.

Svetlana Dali, 57, was sentenced in federal court to time served on Thursday, July 10, with one year of supervised release, ABC News reported. However, Dali, who has been behind bars for seven months, will not be released from custody as she faces new charges in Connecticut on allegations she tried to sneak onto a flight at Bradley International Airport last November, according to ABC News and the Associated Press.

Dali was found guilty in May of slipping past security and airline gate agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City and boarding the Delta flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on Nov. 26, 2024, without a ticket, per the outlets, including NBC News.

Dali, who is a Russian citizen with U.S. residency, claimed at her sentencing on Thursday that she needed to flee the U.S. because she was poisoned by the military, ABC News reported.

“My actions were directed toward only one purpose: to save my life,” she said through a translator, per the outlet.

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“I was forced to escape from the United States because I was poisoned,” Dali added in a statement that lasted more than 30 minutes, ABC News reported. “I can draw a conclusion that I was poisoned by those military chemicals in the United States.”

Dali testified during her two-day trial that she had gone to “where the people were boarding the flights,” and then she “just walked into the airplane,” according to ABC News. She said airline staff did not ask her for a boarding pass and admitted that she did not have one, per the outlet.

After making it through multiple security checkpoints, Dali eventually boarded the flight. The plane departed around 10:37 p.m., but before landing in Paris, she was discovered by the flight crew, who “notified French law enforcement” after she couldn’t provide a boarding pass, according to court documents previously cited by the news outlets.

Dali was detained in France and flew back to New York on Dec. 4, 2024, when she admitted to “flying as a stowaway” while speaking with investigators, the outlets reported, citing court documents.

She was released from custody and later that month was arrested when she removed her ankle monitor and tried to enter Canada through Buffalo, N.Y., the AP reported.