Stowaway Who Hid in Plane Bathroom on Trip from N.Y.C. to Paris Charged in Federal Court

The woman who allegedly stowed away in the bathrooms of a Delta Airlines flight from New York City to Paris last month has been charged in federal court.

According to legal documents obtained by PEOPLE, Svetlana Dali is being accused of boarding Delta flight DL264 from John F. Kennedy International Airport in N.Y.C. to Charles de Gaulle Airport in France on Nov. 26 without a ticket.

Per multiple outlets including NBC News and CNN, Dali — a reported Russian national who once lived in the Philadelphia area — appeared in court in Brooklyn on Thursday, Dec. 5, as NBC News notes she attended alongside attorney Michael Schneider and a Russian translator.

She could face up to five years in prison and has not entered a plea, according to the outlet. Per CNN, her attorney previously compared her offense to “turnstile hopping,” reiterating that she passed a security checkpoint and agreed to a temporary order of detention to form a bail package.

Dali’s attorney declined to provide additional comment to PEOPLE on Friday, Dec. 5.

Dali initially failed to get through a TSA security checkpoint around 8:24 p.m. on the day of the flight because she did not have a boarding pass, but successfully made it through a few minutes later via “a special lane for airline employees masked by a large Air Europa flight crew,” the document notes.

After being screened, Dali boarded the flight around 10:03 p.m. while Delta agents were “busy helping ticketed passengers board,” per the complaint. 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.

Authorities in France then met her at the gate at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Nov. 27, where she was “detained before she entered customs.” According to the complaint, Dali flew back to New York on Dec. 4 and was “escorted” to an interview room before admitting to “flying as a stowaway.”

“Among other things, she stated that she did not have a plane ticket and that she intentionally evaded TSA security officials and Delta employees so that she could travel without buying one, including by looking for opportunities to circumvent them when she knew they would ask for her boarding pass,” the document claims. When an FBI agent showed Dali images from the airport security footage that showed her bypassing security personnel and airline employees, the document says, “she confirmed that the images were of her. She also stated that she knew her conduct was illegal.”

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Per NBC News, TSA Administrator David Pekoske emphasized that Dali was “screened” and that bypassing security checkpoints was “not that easy” and “rarely happens.” He added that she was trying to evade checkpoints during an “incredibly busy day” of Thanksgiving travel.

As previously reported, Dali was first discovered by a flight attendant who grew suspicious of her frequent bathroom visits.

A TSA spokesperson previously told PEOPLE that she “bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”

A Delta spokesperson said the airline “is conducting an exhaustive investigation of what may have occurred and will work collaboratively with other aviation stakeholders and law enforcement to that end.”

The airline added last month that it would “decline further comment…given ongoing investigations.”

As previously reported by CBS and CNN, Dali was also removed from what would have been her return flight to New York on Saturday, Nov. 30, after causing a disruption. Per the document obtained by PEOPLE, she flew back to New York on Dec. 4.