In a tragic incident at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, maintenance personnel have discovered the bodies of two individuals concealed within the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft. The grim discovery occurred during a routine post-flight inspection on Monday night.
The aircraft had completed Flight 1801, departing from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and arriving in Fort Lauderdale at approximately 11:10 p.m. The identities of the deceased remain unknown, and authorities are actively investigating how they managed to access the aircraft’s landing gear compartment. JetBlue has expressed deep sorrow over the incident, stating, “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred.”
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, with paramedics pronouncing both individuals dead upon arrival. The Medical Examiner’s Office is set to perform autopsies to determine the exact causes of death. Notably, the National Transportation Safety Board has indicated that there was no involvement of the flight crew or the operation of the airplane in this incident and has chosen not to pursue an investigation.
This event follows a similar occurrence on Christmas Eve, when a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that landed in Maui from Chicago. Such incidents highlight the extreme dangers associated with attempting to stow away in an aircraft’s landing gear compartment. Individuals who undertake such perilous journeys face life-threatening risks, including being crushed by the landing gear mechanisms, exposure to hypothermia due to freezing temperatures at high altitudes, and hypoxia resulting from severely reduced oxygen levels. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, approximately 75% of stowaway attempts in aircraft wheel wells result in fatalities.
The investigation into the Fort Lauderdale incident is ongoing, with authorities seeking to uncover the circumstances that led to this tragic loss of life. JetBlue has pledged full cooperation with the investigative efforts to determine how security measures were breached and to prevent such occurrences in the future.
