Passenger to appear in court for flying to US without passport, ticket

Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 4 via Scandinavian Airlines flight 931 from Copenhagen, The Guardian reported.

When arriving at the airport, he failed to submit his passport and claimed that he had an American passport but had forgotten it on the plane.

However, an American security officer could not find his name on the flight list. Customs officers found Russian and Israeli identification cards in his belongings.

The flight crew told investigators that before the plane departed, Ochigava sat in an empty seat with no passengers.

After the plane took off, he continued to walk around the plane, changing seats and trying to talk to other passengers, but was ignored.

He was charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft and pleaded not guilty in a Dec. 5 arraignment.

Ochigava said that he did not know how he had boarded the plane from Denmark without the required documents, Business Insider reported.

If convicted, Ochigava could be imprisoned for up to five years, according to the U.S. laws.

Several stowaways have been found illegally traveling in recent years.

In January 2022, a man survived a flight from Johannesburg to Amsterdam after hiding in a cargo plane.

In July 2019, a man was found in the landing gear compartment of an American Airlines flight after it landed in Miami.