A Russian man who flew on a plane from Denmark to Los Angeles in November without a passport or ticket told US authorities he didn’t remember how he got through security in Europe, according to a federal complaint filed by the FBI. He has been charged with a federal crime.
Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava, 46, arrived at Los Angeles international airport on 4 November via Scandinavian Airlines flight 931 from Copenhagen. He initially told authorities he had left his passport on the airplane which he flew on. A US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer could not find Ochigava on the flight manifest or any other incoming international flights, according to the complaint filed on 6 November in Los Angeles federal court.
He was charged with being a stowaway on an aircraft and pleaded not guilty in a 5 December arraignment. A trial was scheduled for 26 December. A federal public defender representing Ochigava, who remained in custody Tuesday, did not immediately return a phone message from the Associated Press seeking comment.
Ochigava did not have a passport or visa to enter the US but customs officers found Russian and Israeli identification in his belongings. But the complaint charging him did not state what his nationality was or if he was a dual citizen. Officers 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.
The flight crew told investigators that during the flight’s departure, Ochigava was in a seat that was supposed to be unoccupied. After departure, he kept wandering around the plane, switching seats and trying to talk to other passengers, who ignored him, according to the complaint.
He also asked for two meals while the flight attendants served passengers food, and he allegedly attempted to eat chocolate that belonged to the cabin crew.
Customs officers could not locate Ochigava’s records while detaining him at the airport and realized he was a stowaway after all recorded passengers had been processed through customs. Ochigava “gave false and misleading information about his travel to the United States, including initially telling CBP that he left his US passport on the airplane”, the complaint said.
In an interview with the FBI, Ochigava claimed he had a doctorate of philosophy in economics as well as marketing and had last worked in Russia. “Ochigava claimed he had not been sleeping for three days and did not understand what was going on,” the complaint said.
Ochigava allegedly claimed he did not know how he got on the plane from Copenhagen, was not sure if he had a ticket, and did not remember how he got through airport security in Denmark without a boarding pass.
The Russian investigative site iStories identified a man with the same name as Ochigava who completed a postgraduate degree in economics at the Plekhanov University in Moscow. The same man was registered as the owner of a recently closed gallery in the Russian capital.
Ochigava remained in federal custody on Tuesday.
He could face up to five years in prison if convicted of being a stowaway on an aircraft, which the US’s federal code defines as a felony.
Pjotr Sauer and the Associated Press contributed to this report
