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A man has been accused of being a stowaway on a flight from Denmark to the United States, after he apparently disembarked at Los Angeles International Airport last month without a passport or ticket.
Despite not appearing on the manifest for Scandinavian Airlines Flight 931, Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava — who, according to court documents, is a dual Russian-Israeli national in his mid-40s — appeared to make little effort to hide his presence during the roughly 12-hour journey from Copenhagen on Nov. 4.
The alleged stowaway walked around the plane and changed seats regularly. He requested two meals at each meal service. He tried to strike up conversations with fellow passengers. And at one point, he even attempted to eat some chocolate belonging to the crew members, according to an affidavit filed by an FBI agent investigating the case.
Ochigava this month pleaded not guilty to violating a section of the U.S. criminal code that prevents anyone from boarding or secreting themselves on an airplane or vessel without the consent of the owner or person in command. Ochigava is due to appear in court on Dec. 26. His attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the affidavit filed by FBI agent Caroline A. Walling, Ochigava told her and another FBI task force officer in a Nov. 5 interview that he hadn’t slept for three days and did not understand what was going on.
“Ochigava did not remember how he got on the plane in Copenhagen. Ochigava also would not explain how or when he got to Copenhagen or what he was doing there,” Walling said in the affidavit. She said he claimed he did not know how he had passed through security checks without a ticket.
During the Nov. 5 interview, Ochigava allowed the agents to briefly scroll through the photos on his phone. The most recent photograph showed television screens displaying flight information for destinations around the world including Amsterdam, Munich and London, along with words written in Danish. Another was a screenshot of a map showing the location of a hostel in Kiel, Germany, and maps from another unknown foreign city. The agents applied in the Nov. 6 affidavit for a search warrant for his iPhone, in an effort to piece together his movements and any record of travel documents or visa applications.
Ochigava told the FBI agents he had a PhD in economics and marketing, and worked in Russia “long ago.”
The affidavit stated that the Scandinavian Airlines flight arrived at Los Angeles airport around 1 p.m. on Nov. 4. Surveillance footage showed a man resembling Ochigava disembarking the aircraft around 1.08 p.m.
“When Ochigava presented himself for entry at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint at LAX, CBP officers discovered that Ochigava was not a listed passenger on the flight manifest for SK 931, or any other incoming international flight. Ochigava was unable to produce a passport or a visa to enter the United States,” Walling wrote in the affidavit.
Speaking in English, Ochigava allegedly told border officials that he had left his passport on the plane. They could not find his passport number listed on their system — as would normally be required for anyone booking a U.S.-bound flight. Border officers searched his bag and found Russian and Israeli identity documents, but no international passport for either country. No passport was found on the plane.
Scandinavian Airlines didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A representative for the airline confirmed the incident to Court Watch, an organization which surfaced the unusual court case, but declined to comment further.
The FBI affidavit said during boarding crew members noticed Ochigava take a seat, 36D, that was meant to be unoccupied. But they did not see his boarding pass. Some crew members also did a head count for their sections, but did not tally the numbers up across the aircraft.
Most of the passengers “ignored him” despite his apparent efforts at small talk, one crew member said.