By Ali Watkins
On Monday, two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft following a flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as stated by the airline in a Tuesday announcement.
JetBlue Flight 1801 took off from Kennedy Airport in New York at 7:49 p.m. on Monday and landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 11:10 p.m., per flight tracking information. The bodies were discovered during a standard post-flight maintenance check on the aircraft, according to the airline.
According to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, paramedics declared the two individuals dead at the location. It remains unknown how long they had been inside the landing gear compartment.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, overseeing Kennedy Airport, did not swiftly respond to inquiries about how the individuals might have accessed the plane.
Landing gear compartments, found beneath an aircraft’s wings and at the front, have historically been utilized by individuals attempting covert travel on planes. The airline did not confirm if the deceased individuals were stowaways.
Attempts to conceal oneself in landing gear compartments have previously resulted in fatalities. These compartments operate during takeoff and landing to allow for the deployment and retraction of wheels and other landing mechanisms, and others have tragically fallen from the openings, sometimes landing in populated areas along flight paths.
Those managing to remain within the compartment face the danger of being crushed by retracting landing gear, as well as exposure to extreme temperatures, pressure fluctuations, and insufficient oxygen. Many stowaways succumb to hypothermia.
Only recently, on Christmas Day, a body was uncovered in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight traveling from Chicago to Hawaii. Earlier in 2023, a man was discovered alive in a landing gear compartment after a flight from Algeria to France, but he was suffering from severe hypothermia.
On Tuesday, an investigation commenced to ascertain the identities of the two bodies found in Fort Lauderdale and how they may have boarded the aircraft before its departure from New York, as reported by JetBlue.
