A woman who has made a bit of a hobby of sneaking onto flights without tickets has been caught again, this time on a transatlantic flight…
In this post:
Stowaway takes United flight from Newark to Milan
A 58-year-old Russian citizen with residency in the United States was arrested in Italy on Thursday morning, after sneaking onto a long haul flight. Specifically on Wednesday, February 25, 2026, the woman snuck onto United Airlines flight UA19, a Boeing 777-200ER operating from Newark (EWR) to Milan (MXP).
She managed to get through the TSA checkpoint and onto the flight to Europe. At some point around the middle of the flight, the crew realized she was onboard without a ticket (it’s not clear how they caught on). At that point the stowaway reportedly pretended she couldn’t hear questions from the crew, and ignored them.
Upon arrival in Italy she was arrested, and it remains to be seen what happens next. Of course you’d think she’d be returned to the United States, but that wasn’t so easy last time…
This same stowaway flew Delta from New York to Paris
The person involved in this situation also made headlines after she was a stowaway on a November 2024 Delta Air Lines flight from New York (JFK) to Paris (CDG). Much like in this situation, she managed to sneak through security and onboard the plane.
On that flight, there actually weren’t any empty seats onboard the plane, so she spent the entire flight moving between lavatories and different areas of the aircraft, and wasn’t actually detected until well into the flight. She was also arrested upon arrival in France.
The plan was to send her back to the United States, but she tried to request asylum in France. When that was denied and she was ultimately forced to take a flight back to the United States, she caused a disturbance onboard, so had to be deplaned. When she did eventually make it back to the United, she was charged over the incident.
Bottom line
A stowaway managed to clear the TSA checkpoint at Newark Airport and then board a United Boeing 777 flight to Milan. It wasn’t until well into the flight that the crew realized something was off, though at that point there was no point in diverting. When the plane landed in Italy, the woman was arrested.
This isn’t the first time that she has done something like this, as she was involved in a similar incident in November 2024, also centered around a transatlantic flight. It’s pretty wild how much “success” she has…
What do you make of this United stowaway incident?
Someone needs to deport it back to RuZZia and keep it there.
How did she get through the TSA and board the plane without a boarding pass….
She's only trying to review flights and write trip reports, much like you do.
It is quite concerning. What all we hear constantly is that all these airport measures are for our safety... Removing shoes, throwing a liquid bottle away if it's even 5ml above the limit...
And this,..strikes twice...
I want to know how she clears security. I guess she could have another ticket and somehow tailgate onto a flight, but that would be interesting to see discussed.
My question is, whatever happened to taking a headcount once a flight had been boarded? They used to do that for every flight, but maybe that was before they started scanning boarding passes at the gate?
Is that she got past TSA at the initial screening without a valid ticket or that once inside the airport legally, boarded a different flight?
Girl wanted to go see the Winter Paralympic Games - can you blame her? :D After all, the Winter Olympics had already had its closing ceremony. Give her an award for wanting to support Paralympians!!
The Port Authority should just ban her from all of its facilities. She's clearly overstayed her welcome at the Port Authority.
get her the f*** out of our great country. Revoke whatever she has and send her back to Putin!
Agreed. She's reportedly a Russian citizen who's in the United States as a permanent resident. Cancel her green card, put her in immigration detention, and she can stay there while she waits to be deportated back to Russia. Residency is not citizenship, and can be cancelled with a few key-strokes. Do it.
I wonder what the denominator is? How many times has she pulled this off successfuly?
DA and Judge gives probation and naturally they do it again. Probably skipped whatever court counseling was required and no one noticed.
other sources say she cut off an ankle monitor and tried to flee to Canada.
She doesn't want to be in the US; send her to one of those contract overseas prisons for DHS
She could have claimed asylum in Italy or France. She’s clearly unwell and needs help.
She did try to request asylum in France per Ben's article, but was denied. Agreed she seems to be a high-functioning mental case and needs help. Perhaps that's why she's trying to get to Europe
That video of her boarding shows how easy it is to do - all it takes is the staff not paying 100% attention. Seems like having to scan a boarding pass is more secure than the facial recognition.
The issue is when the flight is full or she sits in an assigned seat.
I think she should get some kind of a cash reward from the DoT each time she does it - it’s basically like an audit of airport security and boarding procedures…
I mean, how can it happen in the greatest country in the world…? Not once but repeatedly!
Ben, is there an editor-in-chief over at Boarding Area that demands you, Gary, Matt, etc. to publish silly stories like these? I mean, sure, it's not full-VFTW-style 'National Enquirer of the sky' fist-fights on Spirit/Frontier commentary, but...
As a frequent traveler this is huge. This demonstrates failures in security on multiple levels. It is also irritating that we, the travelling public go through the bother of make believe security and we, travelers pay for this circus as add-ons to all tickets including award flights.
What’s silly about this story? It shows a complete failure in airport security. Just because you’re not fussed by this story doesn’t mean others don’t appreciate it.
What’s silly about this story? It shows a complete failure in airport security. Just because you’re not fussed by this story doesn’t mean others don’t appreciate it.
Silly? Actually it's an interesting aviation story. Rather have this than yet another article about how great the ATMOS card is.
How has she not been deported back to Mother Russia?
What a silly question. As if white people get deported. She is exactly the type of people that the pedo loves. Who can therefore do no wrong.
Because she arrived from the US so that's where she gets deported to. It's a pretty standard procedure when someone's inadmissible. Besides, deportations to Russia are quite complicated these days.
@Samo as if the current administration cares about deporting people back to their actual country of origin...
@Ralph4878 Which administration? Macron's? This was in France.
Hah, take that Tim.
She chose United over Delta.
Probably the bad experience on Delta last time. I bet it's the 767.
Definitely the 767, that's why she's on 777 this time.
ily
Paris was her first choice.
The fact that United didn't learn from DL's experience is what is, well, yikes!
Tim, even for you, that's a dumb take, just for a swipe at UA. With the "security" you pass through to even get to the gate, there shouldn't be a situation where someone is in the secured area that's not supposed to be. That's where the failure lies. She could have just as easily snuck on to a DL or AA flight.
The only airline (or "air line" to satisfy you) that can keep a high enough security posture to prevent this is El Al.
@Glidescope,
There was a stowaway on El Al last year.
Not exactly last October (2025) a 13 year old boy somehow managed to stow away on a El Al flight out of TLV to New York. Although the stowaway was discovered before the plane took off this child did manage to make it onboard an El Al international flight. The reason he was discovered before takeoff according to multiple reports was because he took a seat designated for crew members and there were no open...
Not exactly last October (2025) a 13 year old boy somehow managed to stow away on a El Al flight out of TLV to New York. Although the stowaway was discovered before the plane took off this child did manage to make it onboard an El Al international flight. The reason he was discovered before takeoff according to multiple reports was because he took a seat designated for crew members and there were no open seats remaining on the aircraft which immediately raise red flags.
These types of situations don't just happen to Delta and United they also happen to El Al one of the most secure airlines in the world from one of the world's supposedly most secure airports.
I wonder if she can request original routing credit?
Hate to make that trip and not get any miles!