February 12, 2025
LAX’s Russian thriller man convicted for hopping flight with out passport, ticket
A Russian man who slipped previous Danish airport safety to board a flight to Los Angeles Worldwide Airport with no passport, visa or ticket was discovered responsible of being a stowaway, the U.S. Division of Justice introduced Friday.

After a three-day trial, 46-year-old Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava was discovered responsible of 1 depend of being a stowaway on an plane.

He faces a most sentence of 5 years in federal jail and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 5.

Authorities say Ochigava slipped aboard a flight to Los Angeles on Nov. 4 after passing by a Copenhagen Airport boarding gate undetected.

He had been capable of get into the airport terminal with no boarding go a day earlier after tailgating an unsuspecting passenger by a safety turnstile, prosecutors mentioned.

Through the greater than 12-hour flight aboard Scandinavian Airways Flight 931, Ochigava always shifted seats, spoke to a number of passengers, requested for 2 in-flight meals and tried to snack on a cabin crew member’s chocolate bar, in response to court docket paperwork filed by federal prosecutors.

Upon arrival at LAX, Customs and Border Safety officers stopped Ochigava at an immigration checkpoint, and had been unable to seek out him on the manifest of that flight or some other incoming worldwide flights, court docket paperwork mentioned.

Ochigava was unable to supply a passport, visa or different journey paperwork that might permit him entrance into the nation, in response to the Division of Justice. When questioned, authorities say, he supplied false and deceptive details about his journey to america, together with claiming he had left his passport on the airplane.

Russian and Israeli identification playing cards had been present in his possession when police searched his bag, in response to court docket paperwork.

Further particulars as to the motivation behind Ochigava’s journey weren’t instantly obtainable.