FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two people were found dead in the wheel well of a JetBlue flight from New York after landing at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline announced Tuesday. This is the latest in a series of incidents that have raised concerns about airline safety.
The bodies were discovered Monday night during a post-flight maintenance check. The airline said their identities were unknown and “the circumstances surrounding how they gained access to the aircraft remain under investigation.”
JetBlue said the plane departed after spending the night in Kingston, Jamaica. The plane then flew through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport before arriving in Salt Lake City. The plane returned to JFK, departing as Flight 1801 at 8:20 a.m. and landing 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 appeared to be Signal 7 and advised them that they were not moving within the landing gear area,” an unidentified person told Broward County Sheriff’s Office at 11:26 p.m. What was said on the local radio is recorded. Website “Broadcast”. Signal 7 is a law enforcement code for deceased persons.
“Paramedics pronounced both individuals deceased at the scene,” Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Carrie Codd said.
“The Broward County Coroner’s Office will conduct autopsies to determine the cause of death for both individuals,” Codd added.
Their bodies were badly decomposed, law enforcement officials said.
JetBlue said in a statement: “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities and supporting their efforts to determine how this happened.”
landing gear compartment stowaway
According to the New York Times, landing gear compartments have long been used by people trying to stow away on planes unnoticed. It is unclear whether the two were stowaways.
Hiding in the landing gear compartment has proven deadly in the past. Because the compartment opens and closes during takeoff and landing, there is a risk of falling, and many people die from falling.
However, even those who manage to remain in the compartment are still at risk of being crushed by the landing gear. Other dangers include “severe temperatures, changes in barometric pressure, and lack of oxygen, with many stowaways dying from hypothermia,” according to the New York Times.
According to CNN, over 77% of people who stow away on planes this way die.
Arlene Satchell, spokeswoman for the Broward County Aviation Authority, told CNN that the latest report and subsequent investigation have not affected airport operations.
The Transportation Security Administration and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK Airport, declined to comment on the deaths. The National Transportation Safety Board told CNN it is not investigating the incident because “the incident does not appear to involve flight crew members or the operation of the aircraft.”
The Airbus A320 flew most of the day Monday, taking off for the first time from Kingston, Jamaica, at 1:10 a.m. and arriving in New York ahead of a 7:36 a.m. departure to Salt Lake City, according to FlightAware data. The jet then returned to JFK Airport and ended the day in Fort Lauderdale.
The discovery came two weeks after a body was found in the cockpit of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Maui.
The Federal Aviation Administration says landing gear bays are often used by stowaways, and many people don’t realize how little space is available in the bay with the landing gear stowed. Stowaways who are not crushed often lose consciousness or freeze to death from lack of oxygen once the plane reaches cruising altitude.
According to a 2011 FAA report, about 80 percent of people who attempt to fly inside an aircraft’s cockpit or another external compartment die.
“This kind of thing keeps happening.”
Other recent incidents of stowaways have caused serious alarm for airport security during the busy holiday travel period.
A woman boarded a Delta flight during Thanksgiving week and was eventually arrested after making it safely from Kennedy Airport to Paris.
A few weeks later, a stowaway attempted to hitchhike onto a Delta Airlines flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The unticketed passengers were discovered while taxiing for takeoff to Honolulu. Then, on December 24, his body was discovered in the cockpit of a United Airlines passenger plane that took off from Chicago on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo told CNN News Central on Tuesday, “These things continue to happen. People are boarding aircraft on airport grounds, posing a huge safety risk to aircraft.” “I’m working on it,” he said.
“These people were obviously just trying to secure a location, but it could easily be someone trying to attack aviation.”
Contributors: Shimon Prokupecz, Pete Muntean, Sara Smart, Alexandra Skores, Javon Huynh, Raja Razek, Forrest Brown. and Caitlin Keith, Deseret News
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