Dali, a woman previously convicted in a stowaway case tied to New York international travel, was taken into custody Thursday at Milan’s Malpensa Airport after authorities said she allegedly sneaked onto a United Airlines flight from Newark to Milan, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. The official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details publicly, said Dali was arrested after the flight departed from Newark and arrived in Italy.
FBI spokesperson Emily Molinari said the FBI’s Newark office was aware of the alleged stowaway but did not immediately provide additional information. Molinari said the FBI is working with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International Airport, and with the Transportation Security Administration “on this open investigation.”
United Airlines, which operated the Newark-to-Milan flight, said it is “investigating this incident and working with the appropriate authorities.” A federal defender for Dali, Michael K. Schneider, declined to comment Thursday. Schneider also declined to say whether Dali had a mental health evaluation, though he referenced conditions of her supervised release.
In a statement to the AP, Schneider said, “I can’t comment on what she’s done since her release. My office is handling the appeal, which is still pending.” He was also managing Dali’s appeal tied to the earlier case in which she was convicted for stowing away on an international flight from New York to Paris.
AP reporting said Dali was convicted in May 2025 on a stowaway charge after slipping past security and airline gate agents at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Prosecutors said surveillance video showed her, described as a Russian citizen with U.S. residency, slipping into a group of ticketed passengers to walk by Delta Air Lines staff unnoticed. In court, Dali said she walked onto the plane without being asked for a boarding pass, and prosecutors said she hid in a bathroom for several hours and was not discovered until the plane was nearing Paris.
After being flown back to New York, Dali told an FBI agent that she had to leave the United States because she believed people were poisoning her, according to court documents. Prosecutors have also said she evaded security measures at two other airports before the JFK incident and that they believe she may have stowed away on another flight.
Authorities told the AP that two days before she tried to board the Paris flight, Dali got through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, by hiding among other passengers. Authorities said she unsuccessfully tried to get on a plane and then left the airport.
The AP said that in February 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents discovered Dali hiding in a bathroom at Miami International Airport. Prosecutors said agents escorted her out after they could not confirm her account that she had just arrived on an Air France flight. Prosecutors also said federal agents did not make any findings that Dali had illegally traveled as a stowaway to Miami, but they said her statements to law enforcement after her arrest in Paris appeared to indicate she had flown into Miami illegally.
According to the AP, before the latest Newark-to-Milan incident, Dali was still under one year of supervised release that began after she was sentenced to time served last July. Among the standard conditions listed in the supervised release were limits on where she could travel within the federal judicial district where she was authorized to reside and an order to undergo a mental health evaluation and participate in treatment if deemed necessary.