Foreign man flies to LAX without passport or ticket and no one knows how

Foreign man flies to LAX without documents

A Russian-Israeli national somehow flew from Copenhagen, Denmark, into LAX without any documents, and many are confused how. The man had no passport, no ticket, no visa and wasn't on the flight manifest.

LOS ANGELES - A Russian and Israeli national was federally charged with stowing away on a flight into Los Angeles International Airport last month, but investigators and even the man himself aren't sure how he got here.

Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava flew into LAX from Copenhagen, Denmark, on Nov. 4, 2023, according to a federal affidavit. But, as he made his way through customs upon arriving in LA, officials realized they had a problem — Ochigava wasn't listed as a passenger on his flight.

Ochigava came into LA on Scandinavian Airlines flight 931. The federal affidavit says that crew members on the flight remember seeing him on the plane, that he switched seats several times during the flight, ordered two meals and even at one point tried to eat chocolate that belonged to the flight crew.

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Ochigava then allegedly told customs officers that he had left his passport on the plane, but when airline officials searched the plane they didn't find it. Officials said all Ochigava had was a Russian ID, an Israeli ID, and a photo of a passport. A CBP officer told the FBI that their system, which tracks all passengers with flights into the U.S., had no record of Ochigava, a situation they said they "had never encountered."

The FBI then detained Ochigava for questioning, where he allegedly told agents that he didn't know how he got on the plane in Copenhagen. Ochigava also told investigators that he hadn't slept in days and that "he might have had a plane ticket to come to the United States, but he was not sure." He even told investigators that he wasn't even sure how he got to Denmark in the first place.

When agents searched Ochigava's phone, they found photos of TV screens with flight information, screenshots of a Maps app location for a hostel in the German city of Kiel, and street maps of another unknown international city.

Stowing away on a plane carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The full affidavit can be found below:

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