Prosecutors said she’s a flight risk — literally! — but that didn’t stop a Brooklyn judge from still setting her free Friday.
The unhinged Russian airplane stowaway who snuck aboard a Paris-bound flight from JFK last week has tried pulling the bizarre stunt at several other airports in the past, prosecutors said in Brooklyn federal court Friday.
But Svetlana Dali, 57, was nevertheless released without bail under the condition that she wear a GPS tracking device and live temporarily with a church friend in Pennsylvania, Judge Joseph Marutollo ruled.
The ticket-challenged traveler tried to slip onto a plane at the Miami International Airport in February — by strolling into the “arrivals” section, then sneaking into customs, Assistant District Attorney Brooke Theodora said at Dali’s bail hearing Friday.
During that wild incident, she then moved stealthily into the airport’s “departures” section and tried to climb aboard an aircraft, said Theodora — adding Dali also tried the same move at “a number” of domestic airports.
In her most recent case, the stowaway was allegedly able to sneak on board the Paris-bound Delta flight Nov. 26 after dodging airline workers who were distracted by holiday travelers.
She was busted after returning from France to the Queens airport Wednesday and was locked up at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
“This is a serious offense,” Theodora told the court.
“It has very significant international security concerns,” the prosecutor said, adding most of Dali’s family lives in Europe.
“She’s a serious risk of flight,” the ADA said.
Dali had entered the courtroom wearing a beige jail uniform and walking with a cane and stared blankly at the audience as an interpreter later relayed the terms of her release.
Her public defender, Michael Schneider, argued that she has no criminal record and isn’t likely to offend again.
“It’s not as if you can sneak on to an airplane everyday,” he said — to which Judge Marutollo fired back, “She was able to allegedly do that.”
But during the hearing, Schneider also said the crime doesn’t actually amount to the “theft of services” she’d been accused of committing.
Judge Marutollo cut him off, saying it actually “strikes me as something beyond ‘theft of services.’ ”
Dali’s church friend, Silouan John Mathew, said in court that he’s “willing to let her stay in [my] house as needed because I believe she doesn’t have anywhere else to stay.
“I don’t mind her staying in the house, but I don’t want to legally be responsible for her,” he said.
Judge Marutollo told the court he was nervous about setting Dali free but ultimately released her on her own recognisance with conditions.
“I remain feeling concerned that there is a risk of flight here. She evaded TSA security checks twice,” he said. “There are not [community] ties here. … I’m in a tough spot.”
