JetBlue confirmed two people were found dead in the wheel well of one of its planes the night of Monday, Jan. 6. The flight landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida, from New York City.
Workers, doing a post-flight maintenance inspection, discovered the bodies. As of the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 7, the bodies haven’t been identified.
JetBlue officials said the bodies were found on flight 1801 from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. That flight landed just after 11 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, according to the tracker FlightAware.
The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will now conduct autopsies to try to determine the cause of death. Airport operations continued without interruption, according to officials.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the landing gear compartment is often used by stowaways. However, there is very little space and the person can lose consciousness due to a lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures at high altitudes.
In December 2024, workers discovered a body in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that had flown from Chicago to Hawaii. Authorities still haven’t identified that person. The airline said the plane, which departed from O’Hare International Airport, was only accessible from the outside.
In addition, a woman boarded a Delta Air Lines flight over the Thanksgiving holiday and made it from Paris to New York before getting arrested.
On Christmas Eve, a stowaway boarded a Delta flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, bound for Hawaii, without a scanned ticket or boarding pass. When Delta employees discovered the unidentified person, the plane returned to the gate and the person ran off the flight. However, the person was later arrested in an airport restroom.
Former Transportation Department Inspector General Mary Schiavo told CNN, the stowaways post a huge security danger because they could be somebody trying to cause harm.
Investigators are now trying to figure out how the two people, who died on the JetBlue flight, were able to gain access to the plane. A spokesperson for the airline called the situation heartbreaking.
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