How does a man without a ticket and without a passport board a SAS intercontinental flight to the United States, land in Los Angeles, and walk off the plane?
Russian Stowaway On SAS Los Angeles Flight…How Did He Do It?
Over the summer I flew SAS flight 931 from Copenhagen (CPH) to Los Angeles (LAX). It’s an 11-hour flight that departs Copenhagen in the morning. We were connecting from Frankfurt and I recall there being no additional security check, which is a common occurrence on a US-bound flight from Europe. Instead, we just walked to the boarding case, presented our passports (which were checked by an agent), scanned our boarding passes, and boarded the flight. My wife was not asked to present her Green Card, which is often the case at the boarding gate. No crazy American agents either…
Last month, a Russian-Israeli man (maybe?) named Sergey Ochigav somehow managed to proceed through the security checkpoint and passport control at CPH, then board SAS flight 931 to Los Angeles without a ticket or passport. Maybe he had an invisibility cloak?
Onboard, he took seat 36D (when we took this flight, we were in row 48), though he proceeded to move twice during the flight. The flight wasn’t full and the crew thought nothing of it. 36D was on unoccupied seat, but the crew never bothered to check each seat against the manifest (that’s not so common) or do a passenger count to see if it matched the manifest count (that’s much more common).
During the flight he asked for a second meal during the post-departure lunch and again during the pre-arrival snack (a man after my own heart…I do the same thing). SAS does not feed economy class passengers very well, though you can order business class meals which are quite delicious.
> Read More: My Premium Menu Experience On SAS (Order A Business Class Meal In Economy Class)
The flight landed in LA and Ochigav got off the plane and presented himself at US passport control. He first claimed that he let his passport onboard the aircraft and had a PhD in economics and management, but when his name was not found on the flight manifest (which is submitted to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prior to departure), he claimed he “did not remember” how he got through security or onboard the plane in Copenhagen. DHS turned him over to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
He was searched and the following was found on him:
- Russian identification cards
- An Israeli identification card
- A “partial photograph of a passport”
On his phone, FBI found:
- A picture of the flight board at Copenhagen airport
- Screen grabs from the ‘Maps’ app showing:
- a hostel in Kiel, Germany
- street maps from an unknown foreign city
I have not been able to independently verify any charges against him, but he purportedly has been charged with being a “stowaway” and remains in US custody.
I wonder if his name really is Sergey Ochigav and is really is Israeli…or Russian? My hunch is that he was never actually in Denmark, but instead stepped off a flight in the non-Schengen area at CPH and then navigated himself onto the SAS 931 flight without ever clearing passport control. I cannot imagine him clearing passport control without a passport unless he had a fake passport or some sort of European Union ID card that he ditched.
CONCLUSION
A mysterious Russian managed to board an SAS flight from Copenhagen to Los Angeles without a ticket, then lied to border officials, them feigned ignorance. It’s a rare but fascinating case. We may never find out what happens to Ochigav, but I can imagine he’ll be persona non grata when it comes to future trips to the USA.
(Hat Tip: View From The Wing)
I haven’t come across anything yet confirming that he went through passport control at CPH, but maybe he did if he didn’t fly into CPH from a non-Schengen destination.
CPH passport control wouldn’t have cleared him to go from the Schengen side to the non-Schengen gates if he had no passport or passport replacing docs to present to them at the CPH passport control booths.
Spy for whom: Israel, Russia or nobody? Relatively competent espionage-capable countries don’t send spies to the US to draw attention to themselves like this in the US.
While at CPH, this guy was said to have tried and failed to get on flights to BKK, DUB and who knows where else. But eventually he got lucky with sneaking onto the LAX flight.
I read what seemed to be the FBI affidavit in this matter. It was interesting and even amusing in ways.
The Kiel hostel thing suggests to me that he could have possibly come to CPH by surface transport means. And that in turn suggests he would have likely had to clear CPH passport control to get on board this flight.
I’ve seen CPH passport control catch people using other people’s passports — so much so that I’ve seen them remove people from some of my flights departing from CPH to non-Schengen destinations when valid passports were being fraudulently used by near lookalikes.
Here is an embedded PDF of what appears to be the criminal complaint:
https://www.404media.co/no-record-of-russian-economist-who-flew-to-lax-without-a-ticket-didnt-remember-how-he-got-here/
Your photo is of CPH C gate departures to the US. I think this thing is easier to pull off with E gate departures to the US, but I am curious to know if the flight of this guy left from E gates or if it was from C gates for his flight that day. These two non-Schengen gate areas at CPH are connected on the non-Schengen side, but the ease of sneaking by the gate agents is not uniform across all gates and each pier.
Interesting insights,
Why were you suspended from FlyerTalk?
The insecure don’t want my presence, and so I took the messages and pared back where my contributions weren’t appreciated by those administering the site. I am instead participating more where the site owners/admins and users appreciate my contributions and I will continue to be available via all the other channels that have remained open for people to get information and help from or via me.
The grapevine communications indicated a permanent ban was being pursued for quite some time and then some and they were going to use false insinuations and unproven claims to try to discredit and ban my account one way or another even as there was nothing demonstrably against the FT TOS with the posts or any other actions being taken on the FT site by me during at least the last 18+ years and who knows how many posts made in that time. There was some mention about smearing with baseless accusations about credential stuffing/password theft/misuse to hack into moderators’ accounts, but those would be yet another false and even fundamentally dishonest accusation if directed this way.
You are most welcome here!
He learned everything from Marilyn Hartman.
ROTFL
likely third party ground personal from cph
Amateur. He could just have walked across the border from Mexico, and he’d been given a free flight to anywhere in the US, free healthcare, etc. He would have been welcomed with open arms. Why fly and be treated badly?
Aah, you beat me to it. But not to worry: Kamala the border czar is on the job, lol.
Those MAGA/Russian trolls like you are really boring..
Greetings to your leader Putin/Trump!
No CPH-Mexico flights when he was at the airport.
You forgot he gets a $5000 visa gift card too.
try him as a spy and hang him
send a message that illegal immigration will not be tolerated
Spy for whom, Israel, Russia, nobody? Relatively competent spy agencies don’t send out spies like this and desire to draw attention to themselves like this.
If he wanted to migrate irregularly and get in and spy in the US, why wouldn’t he play like an asylum-seeker and claim asylum on arrival at LAX? Do you think his failed attempted to fly CPH-BKK was for the same purpose? 😉
Persona non grata?? Or welcomed into the mass of illegals clogging Homeland Security?? Sorry to get political,,but the state of immigration is a national disgrace, and a potential disaster.
That the country acts as such a strong magnet for even so much irregular migration could be taken as a sign of the greatness of the country as an economic power and as a a beacon of liberty and opportunity.
The day when masses of foreigners no longer care to push so hard to get into the country even under the most difficult conditions will be a sign of serious trouble having hit the country.
@Riccardo
Yes it’s getting boring. But it doesn’t make a person a MAGA/Russian troll to know that he is right about crossing the Mexican border and getting welcomed with many benefits. Having a secure border does not mean your racist. Controlling and knowing who is coming into your country is just a correct / common sense approach
Of course, the United States and any country have the right and the duty to control the entry of illegal immigrants. We both agree on that.
What a Russian/Maga troll does is spread that amount of lies without having a clue. They live for fake news. You have to be ignorant or ill-intentioned to say that to enter the US you just have to cross the border, and you automatically gain free housing, money, credit card, food, and free healthcare. This is so stupid! The percentage of people who win asylum is minimal.
But the trolls lie and lie so much that something remains…
Evil people.
Anyway..
Some mentions that he is still under federal detention and had at some point been hospitalized after arrival at LAX.
Could his hospitalization under federal detention be related to his having a neurological/psychiatric problem?
Seems like the guy is taken as being around 46-47 years old.
He should have come across the Rio Grande and requested asylum.
Less of a headache
Cabin Crew did not check boarding passes and allowing him to switch seats often is lax. Same as boarding agent? You always scan your boarding pass/passport before boarding. Staff screwed up big time. This is a security threat to SAS. Anything is possible these days.