Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava was arrested at LAX airport on a charge of being a stowaway after he arrived on a November 4th flight from Copenhagen without a visa, passport, or even a ticket for the flight.
Custom and Border Protection (CBP) agents checked the flight manifests, and Ochigava was not listed as a passenger.
FBI agent Caroline Walling said,
"When OCHIGAVA presented himself for entry at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint at LAX, CBP officers discovered that OCHIGAVA was not a listed passenger on the flight manifest for SK 931, or any other incoming international flight. OCHIGAVA was unable to produce a passport or a visa to enter the United States."
But Ochigava was not a stowaway in the traditional sense. He interacted with the crew, sat in a seat, and walked about freely on the plane. He even ate meals.
There was some strange behavior. He moved around to different seats.
And at one point, he "attempted to eat the chocolate that belonged to members of the cabin crew."
But the crew did not flag it as abnormal behavior.
(Because everyone knows the cabin crew's chocolate is the best chocolate there is. I‘m sure it gets raided all the time.)
Also the CBP reported that there was no record of Ochigava in any CBP system.
"The CBP officer had never encountered a situation where a passenger in the CBP inspection area was not in the CBP system."
A search of Ochigava's bag was equally unhelpful.
Agents found "Russian identification cards and an Israeli identification card," as well as "a partial photograph of a passport."
But when Ochigava was asked how he got through security and boarded the plane in Copenhagen without a ticket, Ochigava became confused.
He could not recall how he got aboard the plane, nor how or when he got to Copenhagen in the first place.
The FBI searched his phone and found photos of "television screens displaying flight information for flights flying all over the world" taken at Copenhagen's CPH airport. "Other photographs consisted of screen grabs from the ‘Maps' app showing a hostel in Kiel, Germany, and street maps from an unknown foreign city."
The FBI, CBP, and the airports are all being hush-hush about Ochigava.
Only the airport in Copenhagen gave a statement about the whole ordeal. A spokesperson for Scandinavian Airlines said,
I can confirm there has been an incident where a passenger has been involved in the below scenario departing from Copehnagen with an SAS flight. The matter is being handled by relevant authorities both in US and Denmark and we cannot comment any further. It's the authorities who will have to give further details.
And that's about all the details about Ochigava available.
What in the world was this guy up to??
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