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- Two bodies were found in a JetBlue plane's wheel well in Fort Lauderdale.
- The incident raises concerns over airline security and is under investigation.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two people were found dead in the wheel well of a JetBlue plane from New York City after it landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said Tuesday. It's the latest in a string of incidents that have raised concerns over airline security.
The bodies were discovered Monday night during a post-flight maintenance inspection. Their identities are unknown, the airline said, and "the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation."
JetBlue said the plane had started in Kingston, Jamaica, after overnighting there. It then went to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and then to Salt Lake City. It returned to JFK and left at 8:20 a.m. as Flight 1801, then landed in Fort Lauderdale at 11:10 p.m., according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
"A gate technician in the landing gear area noticed two males who appear to be Signal 7, advised they are not moving in the landing gear area," an unidentified person said on Broward County Sheriff's Office radio at 11:26 p.m., as recorded on the website Broadcastify. Signal 7 is a law-enforcement code for a deceased person.
"On scene, paramedics pronounced both individuals deceased," said Carey Codd, spokesperson for the Broward County Sheriff's Office.
"The Broward County Medical Examiner's Office will perform autopsies to determine the causes of death of both individuals," Codd added.
The bodies of the two men were badly decomposed, according to a law enforcement official.
"This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred," JetBlue said in a statement.
Landing gear compartment stowaways
According to the New York Times, landing gear compartments have long been used by those trying to stow away on a plane undetected. It is unknown whether the two men were stowaways.
It has proven deadly to hide in landing gear compartments in the past. As the compartments open and close for takeoff and landing, it is possible to fall out and people often fall to their deaths.
But there are still risks for those who manage to stay inside the compartment, such as being crushed by the landing gear. Other hazards include "severe temperatures, pressure changes and lack of oxygen. Many stowaways die of hypothermia," per the New York Times.
According to CNN, over 77% of people who stow away on planes this way die.
The most recent report and subsequent investigation is not impacting operations at the airport, Broward County Aviation Department spokesperson Arlene Satchell told CNN.
The Transportation Security Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK Airport, declined comment on the deaths. The National Transportation Safety Board told CNN it is not investigating because "it appears that the incident had no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane."
The Airbus A320 jet was in service nearly all day Monday, according to FlightAware data, first taking off from Kingston, Jamaica, at 1:10 a.m. It arrived in New York ahead of a 7:36 a.m. departure to Salt Lake City. The jet then flew back to JFK before concluding its day in Fort Lauderdale.
The discovery comes two weeks after a body was found in the wheel bay of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Maui.
The Federal Aviation Administration says the landing gear compartment is often used by stowaways, who don't realize how little space is available in the bay when the gear is retracted. Stowaways who aren't crushed often end up losing consciousness for lack of oxygen or freezing once the plane is at cruising altitude.
About 80% of people who attempt to fly in the wheel well or another external compartment of an aircraft die, according to a 2011 FAA report.
'This keeps happening'
There have been other recent stowaway incidents that raised serious alarm over airport security during the busy holiday travel period.
A woman boarded a Delta plane Thanksgiving week and made it from Kennedy to Paris before she was eventually arrested.
Weeks later, a stowaway tried to hitch a ride on a Delta flight departing from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The unticketed passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for takeoff to Honolulu. And, on Dec. 24, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines jet in Maui, Hawaii, that had taken off from Chicago.
"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," former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo told CNN News Central on Tuesday.
"These people were apparently just trying to get some place, but it could have easily been someone attempting to attack aviation."
Contributing: Shimon Prokupecz, Pete Muntean, Sara Smart, Alexandra Skores, Javon Huynh, Raja Razek and Forrest Brown; and Caitlin Keith, Deseret News
