Two bodies found in landing gear of JetBlue plane

JETBLUE AIRBUS A321-271 N4022J (MSN 10303)

Two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport, authorities said. The bodies were located in the wheel well area Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, a local TV Station reported.

They were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection; a JetBlue spokesperson told the TV station.

JetBlue flight 1801 had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Names of the people or other details about them were not immediately released Tuesday.

“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline added.

The sheriff’s office says it is investigating how the two men were able to get into the wheel-well of the plane. The plane had previously been to Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier on Monday, according to a JetBlue spokesperson.

Paramedics declared both people dead at the scene, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. The agency’s homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said.

Both are believed to be men, said Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
People attempting to stowaway in wheel wells are exposed to great risk, including extremely cold temperatures, lack of oxygen, and the risk of being crushed by the landing gear. Only a few have survived the attempts.

It’s the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.

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