Upon landing at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport, two bodies were found in the wheel well of a JetBlue flight that had departed from New York. Two weeks ago, a similar incident was reported in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane from Chicago to Maui.
Their identities are still unknown, nor has the gender of the victims been disclosed, and the airline stressed that “the circumstances that led to access to the aircraft remain under investigation.” According to initial reconstructions, the plane was operational on Monday, January 6. The first flight was from Kingston, Jamaica, at 1:10 a.m. to New York City. Then there was a second to Salt Lake City at 7:36 a.m. and back again to JFK airport. It then left for Florida around 8 p.m. and landed in Fort Lauderdale at 11:10 p.m., where an alarm was raised by a technician that two men were in the landing gear area.
When they were found during the end-of-flight inspection, the two people were immediately pronounced dead by paramedics. Taking control of the investigation is the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which will proceed with an autopsy to “determine the cause of death of both people,” spokesman Carey Codd announced.
The Federal Aviation Administration Commission commented that many stowaways often squeeze into the landing gear compartment to avoid detection without realizing how little space there is. So they end up crushed by the landing gear or die from lack of oxygen or hypothermia when the plane reaches altitude.
