Law Enforcement Descends on Airport After Two Dead Bodies Are Found in JetBlue Plane's Landing Gear
The bodies of two dead people were found Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport overnight.
The corpses were found in the wheel well of a JetBlue Airways plane, according to CBS.
The discovery came after a routine inspection of the plane. On Monday, the plane flew to Florida from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“The circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” JetBlue said.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred.”
There was no clear indication of when the two individuals entered the wheel well.
According to the Transportation Security Administration, the plane flew from Kingston, Jamaica, to JFK, made a round trip from JFK to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then made the trip to Florida.
The plane spent Sunday night in Jamaica.
CBS correspondent Kris Van Cleave said, pilots are supposed to visually inspect a plane before each flight and examining the wheel wells is part of that inspection.
CBS said that the Jamaica Observer reported that the two victims were Jamaican, but no official confirmation of that has been made.
“The individuals who [are] deceased are both males. Beyond that, their identities at this time are unknown,” said Carey Codd, a representative of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, according to CNN.
“The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will perform autopsies to determine the causes of death of both individuals,” Codd said.
Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo said, a spate of recent stowaways on planes is a concern.
“This keeps happening. People are getting onto the airport property and getting into an aircraft, and it poses a huge security danger for the aircraft,” she said.
“These people were apparently just trying to get some place, but it could have easily been someone attempting to attack aviation,” she said.
“I don’t know how airplanes work, but it’s surprising to me that a body could stay in a wheel well for that long,” JetBlue passenger Sarah Schaefer said, according to WPLG.
“I wouldn’t think that I would be able to survive any kind of air travel, knowing how high planes go, how cold it is up there. Maybe people are really desperate to get out of bad situations — that would be my guess,” she said.
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