DAMIAN DOVARGANES/AP / 2022
Air traffic can be seen on the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport. A Russian man who allegedly flew from Denmark to Los Angeles on Nov. 4, without a passport or ticket, told the U. S. government he didn’t know how he got through security checks in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed in November through the FBI.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Russian man who allegedly flew from Denmark to Los Angeles in November without a passport or ticket has told the U. S. government he didn’t know how he got through security in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed through the FBI.
Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava arrived at Los Angeles International Airport on Nov. 4 on Norwegian Airlines Flight 931 from Copenhagen. A U. S. Customs and Border Protection officer was unable to locate Ochigava on the flight manifest or any other incoming foreign flights, according to the complaint filed Nov. 1. 6 in a federal court in Los Angeles.
He was accused of being a stowaway on an airplane and pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Dec. 5. A trial scheduled for December 26. A federal public defender representing Ochigava, who remained in custody Tuesday, did not immediately return a phone call. The Associated Press reached out for comment.
The flight crew told investigators that at the time of the flight’s departure, Ochigava was in a seat that purported to be unoccupied. After departure, he continued to wander around the plane, changing seats and seeking to communicate with other passengers, who ignored him, according to the complaint.
He also ate “two food items in the meal service and, at one point, attempted to eat the chocolate that belonged to the cabin crew members,” the complaint states.
Ochigava did not have a passport or visa to enter the United States, officials said. Customs and Border Protection officers searched his bag and found what “appeared to be Russian identification cards and an Israeli identification card,” federal officials said in court documents. They also found in his phone a photograph that partially showed a passport containing his name, date of birth, and a passport number but not his photograph, they said.
Ochigava “gave false and misleading information about himself to the United States, adding, first of all, that he told CBP that he had left his U. S. passport on the plane,” the complaint states.
Scandinavia Airlines proved that “there is a scenario involving a passenger” on a flight from Copenhagen to the United States. “The matter is being dealt with through the appropriate government in the United States and Denmark and we are unable to comment further,” the airline said. in a written statement.
Ochigava told FBI agents he has a doctorate in economics and marketing and that he had last worked as an economist in Russia.
“Ochigava claimed she had not slept for three days and did not perceive what was happening,” the complaint states.
He told the government that he possibly would have had a plane ticket to come to the United States, but he wasn’t sure. He also said he hadn’t forgotten how he got through security in Copenhagen and didn’t know what he was doing. in the Scandinavian city, according to the complaint.
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