Sergei Ochigava says he no longer remembers how he got on the plane from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Los Angeles in the US. Still, he managed to board that twelve-hour flight, even though he had neither a ticket nor a passport with him. Ochigava is charged with a federal crime. The FBI is conducting the investigation.
Sergei Vladimirovich Ochigava, 46, landed at Los Angeles Airport around 1 p.m. on November 4 on Scandinavian Airlines Flight 931, which had departed from the Danish capital Copenhagen. Ochigava turned out to have no passport, no visa and no plane ticket with him in LA. He initially said he had left his passport on the plane, but it was not found. According to the indictment, he provided “false and misleading information about his trip to the US.”
Among his belongings, customs found Russian and Israeli identity cards, but no international passport required to enter the US. A visa application could not be found either. It is not clear which – dual or otherwise – nationality Ochigava possesses.
He was immediately charged with traveling as a stowaway on an airplane, which is a crime under U.S. federal law. On December 5, he pleaded not guilty. His case will come to court on December 26. He is now in pre-trial detention. Ochigava could face up to five years in prison if convicted.
Mystery
How Ochigava got through security and boarding control in Copenhagen is a mystery, including to himself, he said in his statement. Surveillance camera images at Copenhagen airport show Ochigava “without a valid plane ticket”.
According to the crew, he was seated in seat 36D during takeoff, which would normally remain vacant. He then kept changing seats and tried to strike up conversations with other passengers, but “they mostly ignored him,” the complaint said. He also requested two meals during each service and “tried to eat the chocolate that was from the staff.” The crew did not realize that they had an extra passenger on board.
Ochigava told the FBI that he had a doctorate in marketing and economics and that he had worked in Russia as an economist “a long time ago.” He further claimed that he “hadn’t slept for three days and didn’t understand what was going on.” He also could not provide clarity about what he was doing in Copenhagen or how he got there. All mysterious. The FBI is already taking the matter very seriously.
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