NEW YORK: A woman charged with being a stowaway on a flight from New York to Paris was released from custody Friday, with her whereabouts to be monitored by a New York federal court.
Svetlana Dali is alleged to have bypassed a checkpoint at New York's JFK airport on November 26 before sneaking aboard a Delta Airlines flight to the French capital.
The 57-year-old was initially turned away at an airport security checkpoint when she could not produce a boarding pass, so instead passed through a screening channel for air crew by mingling with Air Europa flight staff, the federal criminal complaint reads.
It is unclear why Dali, reportedly a Russian with American residency, sought to sneak aboard the flight, with the crime of being a stowaway carrying a prison sentence of up to five years.
She has not entered a plea. Under the conditions of her release, Dali will be subject to GPS monitoring and a curfew while staying with a friend in Philadelphia, according to John Marzulli, spokesman for the prosecutor's office for the Eastern District of New York.
She will not be allowed to leave the city except to attend hearings at the court in New York or meet with her lawyer.