2 bodies found in landing gear of JetBlue plane after flight from JFK to Florida

Jessica Schladebeck and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Jan 7, 2025

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Two people were found dead hidden in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane following a flight from New York to Florida, airline officials confirmed Tuesday.

The Airbus A320 departed from John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday night at 8:20 p.m. and arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just after 11 p.m., CBS News reported.

A maintenance crew discovered their bodies on JetBlue Flight 1801 during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection, airline officials confirmed.

“Tragically, both individuals were deceased,” JetBlue said in a statement. “At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation.

“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the statement said.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the stowaways did not access the aircraft at JFK Airport, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey source with knowledge of the case said.

It was not immediately clear just when the pair climbed into the landing gear bay, which isn’t heated or pressurized during flights.

Hours before departing from Kennedy to Florida Monday night, the plane began its day in Kingston, Jamaica, where historically there is a high risk of stowaway activity on U.S.-bound flights.

The plane spent Sunday night in Jamaica before leaving there Monday, officials said.

It traveled from Jamaica to Kennedy Airport, then to Salt Lake City, Utah, before returning to JFK to prepare for the flight to Fort Lauderdale, officials confirmed.

The stowaways are believed to be Jamaican nationals, although their identities haven’t been officially confirmed, according to the Jamaican Observer.

An investigation into the matter is ongoing.

A spokeswoman for the Port Authority, which oversees Kennedy Airport, referred emails about the deaths to JetBlue and the National Transportation Safety Board.

An NTSB spokesman said the investigation showed that “the incident had no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane and therefore is not the jurisdiction of the NTSB.”

The case is being reviewed by local authorities and the Federal Aviation Administration, the agency said.

Stowaways in the past have hidden in airplane compartments to sneak onto flights. Flight crews are supposed to do visible inspections of the wheel wells before every flight, but the two victims could have hidden deep inside the wheel well, out of view, officials said.

Per the FAA, stowaways who aren’t crushed by the plane’s landing equipment often end up losing consciousness due to lack of oxygen or freezing once the plane hits cruising altitude.

Even prior to takeoff, temperatures in New York were frigid Monday night, hovering in the low 20s. The plane then cruised at 38,000 feet before landing in Florida, according to Flightradar24.

The incident comes just two weeks after a body was discovered inside the wheel well of a United Airlines plane flying out of Chicago for the Kahului Airport on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Christmas Eve.