On January 7th, JetBlue Airways announced that two bodies were discovered inside the landing gear compartment of one of their flights that landed in Florida on Monday night.
The airline stated that the bodies were found during a routine inspection after the aircraft landed.
The involved flight was JetBlue Airways Flight 1801, which departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida at 11:10 pm on Monday.
A spokesperson for the airline stated, “The circumstances of how they accessed the aircraft are still under investigation. This is a tragic situation, and we are committed to closely cooperating with the authorities to support their efforts in understanding how this incident occurred.”
Carey Codd, a spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, said, “Emergency medical personnel pronounced both individuals dead at the scene.”
Codd added, “The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct autopsies to determine the cause of death for the two individuals.”
The identities of the deceased are unknown. According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, both individuals were confirmed to be male.
According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), on Monday, the aircraft began its daily operations from the capital of Jamaica, Kingston.
Data from FlightAware, a flight tracking website, also indicates that the Airbus A320 aircraft operated almost continuously throughout Monday. It took off from Kingston for the first time at 1:10 am, arrived in New York, flew to Salt Lake City, Utah at 7:36 am, returned to New York’s JFK Airport, and finally landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, concluding its day.
As per regulations, pilots are required to conduct a walk-around inspection of the aircraft before each flight, which includes checking the landing gear compartment. However, in this incident, the pilots apparently did not immediately notice individuals hiding in the compartment.