Man with no ticket or passport flew from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, FBI says

How hard is it to jump on an international flight to the United States with no ticket and no passport? One man managed to do it last month after he passed through security at Copenhagen Airport in Denmark and flew on a Scandinavian Airlines flight to Los Angeles International Airport, carrying only Russian and Israeli identification cards in his bag, prosecutors said. The man, Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava, spoke to federal law enforcement officers, with the help of a Russian-speaking federal agent, on Nov. 5, the day after his flight landed and he was detained in Los Angeles. But the interview seemed only to deepen the mystery surrounding his travel. He told the agents that he had a Ph.D. in economics and marketing and had worked as an economist in Russia a long time ago, according to an F.B.I. affidavit. He said he had not slept in three days and “did not understand what was going on,” the affidavit says. He said he “might have had” a plane ticket to the United States, but was not sure, according to the affidavit. Ochigava also said he “did not remember how he got on the plane” and “would not explain how or when he got to Copenhagen, or what he was doing there,” the affidavit says. He also “claimed he did not remember how he went through security without a ticket,” it says. Ochigava was indicted by a federal grand jury last month on a charge of being a stowaway on an aircraft, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 26. His federal public defender, Erica Choi, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, said the authorities believed that Ochigava was a Russian citizen and had not confirmed any legal status he might have in Israel. The documents in his possession indicate that he is 46 years old, Mrozek said.<br/>