Accused US-bound stowaway brazenly switched seats — and kept getting free meals, feds say
A Russian man sneaked onto a U.S.-bound plane without a passport or ticket — and kept receiving free meals from the flight crew by brazenly switching seats, federal prosecutors said.
The accused 46-year-old stowaway was arrested after the Scandinavian Airlines flight from Denmark landed in Los Angeles on Nov. 4, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
He had no passport or visa to show U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the LAX immigration checkpoint that day, prosecutors said. He’s accused of giving the officers “false and misleading information” and lying about leaving his passport on the plane.
The man told FBI agents in an interview on Nov. 5 that he hadn’t slept for three days and “did not remember how he got on the plane,” according to an affidavit filed with a criminal complaint.
Now, a jury has found the man, who has Russian and Israeli passports, guilty of one count of being a stowaway on an aircraft, the attorney’s office announced in a Jan. 26 news release.
McClatchy News contacted his court-appointed federal public defenders on Jan. 29 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
How did he board the plane?
The man slipped past security and boarded the flight to Los Angeles at the Copenhagen Airport on Nov. 3, according to prosecutors.
He “tailgated” a passenger through a security turnstile and made his way into an airport terminal with no boarding pass, prosecutors said.
At some point, he encountered Danish border police, who seized his Israeli and Russian passports, according to a trial brief.
His Israeli passport showed he was a “Schengen overstay,” meaning he stayed longer in the European Schengen Zone longer than allowed, the trial brief said. The region is made up of 27 countries, including Denmark.
Although the officers told him to stay in the airport’s non-Schengen terminal as they dealt with his “visa overstay issue,” he didn’t listen, according to the trial brief.
The man is accused of trying to board two flights out of Copenhagen — one to Bangkok and another to London — before boarding the flight to Los Angeles, according to the trial brief.
He stepped into the flight’s boarding line, then “proceeded undetected through the gate and jet bridge,” the trial brief said.
The man switches seats on the flight
When the flight crew noticed the man wandering through the plane’s business class section before takeoff, they tried to help him, according to the trial brief.
However, he left the section and sat down in an unassigned economy-class seat, the trial brief said.
He was the only person not listed on the 183-person flight manifest, according to prosecutors.
Throughout the 10-hour flight, the man received free meals from the flight crew, who had witnessed him repeatedly switching seats, prosecutors said.
“He deceived crew into giving him a second meal by moving between sections of the aircraft while claiming he was not previously served,” the trial brief said.
The man also tried to eat chocolate meant for the cabin crew, according to the affidavit.
McClatchy News contacted Scandinavian Airlines for comment on Jan. 29 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
After the flight landed in Los Angeles, U.S. customs officers didn’t find any record of the man and learned he wasn’t listed as a passenger, prosecutors said.
When the FBI interviewed him with a Russian translator, the man told them he formerly worked as an economist in Russia, according to the affidavit.
He said he didn’t remember boarding the Los Angeles-bound flight in Copenhagen and wouldn’t tell the FBI why he was in Denmark, the affidavit said.
“When asked how he got through security in Copenhagen, (he) claimed he did not remember how he went through security without a ticket,” according to the affidavit.
The man has been detained in federal custody since his arrival at LAX, prosecutors said.
He’s facing up to five years in prison, according to the attorney’s office. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 5.
This story was originally published January 29, 2024 at 12:09 PM with the headline "Accused US-bound stowaway brazenly switched seats — and kept getting free meals, feds say."
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