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New Details on How a Russian Stowaway Flew to LAX Without a Ticket or Passport

The man managed to fly from Copenhagen to L.A. even after his passports had been confiscated.

New court filings shine light on security failures in the baffling stowaway case of a Russian man who flew internationally without a passport or plane ticket.

Sergei Ochigava arrived at Los Angeles International Airport last month from Copenhagen, where he was allowed to wander the airport even after Danish authorities confiscated his Israeli and Russian passports.

He had arrived at the Copenhagen airport without a ticket for any flight, having overstayed his visa on the Israeli passport and lacking any stamps or visas on the Russian one, Court Watch and 404 Media reported.

“Although defendant was not a ticketed passenger on any flight departing that day, airport surveillance footage showed defendant tailgating an unsuspecting passenger through a security turnstile to enter ‘Finger C,’ a terminal for non-Schengen [international flights out of Europe] departures,” the filing reads.

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After his documents were seized, Ochigava did not remain in the terminal as instructed by Danish police. Instead, he wandered the airport and attempted to board flights to Bangkok and London before successfully making his way onto a Los Angeles-bound plane, authorities said.

Investigators say he likely managed to sneak onto that Scandinavian Airlines System flight by again closely trailing a passenger through the boarding gate.

They documented multiple interactions between Ochigava and the flight crew onboard, as well as a seat-switching deception that allowed him to receive two in-flight meals instead of one. Once at LAX, Ochigava was detained at Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The filings reveal a tangle of federal and international correspondence, detailing “more than a month’s worth of communications between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, INTERPOL, Copenhagen Airport officials, and Scandinavian Airlines” as authorities attempted to piece together Ochigava’s identity and his journey through international terminals.

The FBI eventually determined he had never been to the U.S. before and did not appear in any FBI or CBP databases. His trial on stowaway charges is set to begin next week.