A 46-year-old man was sentenced Friday for stowing away from Denmark on a plane bound for LAX without documents or tickets.
Sergei Ochigaba, 46, who holds both Russian and Israeli passports, could be sentenced to the legal maximum of five years in federal prison.
According to evidence presented during a three-day trial, on November 3, 2023, Ochigaba was able to hitch an unsuspecting passenger through a security turnstile at Copenhagen Airport without a boarding pass. .
The next day, he passed through the gate on a Scandinavian Airlines flight to Los Angeles.
The crew of Flight SK9131 noticed the stowaway’s strange behavior during the trip, including changing seats and attempting to eat chocolate that belonged to the crew.
When Ochigaba arrived at Los Angeles International Airport, immigration officials were unable to find any mention of him as a Russian stowaway on his manifest.
When asked by Customs and Border Protection officials, he said he was unable to provide a passport, visa, or other documents needed to travel to the United States.
The FBI and CBP investigated the incident with the assistance of Copenhagen Airport Police. U.S. District Judge George H. Wu scheduled Ochigaba’s sentencing for Feb. 5.