BY JEFF MARTIN, FREIDA FRISARO AND JULIE WALKER
[Video courtesy of WSVN-TV News]
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport, the latest security breach involving the nation’s aviation system, authorities said.
The bodies were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection on Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” JetBlue’s statement said.
AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on 2 bodies found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue flight in Florida Monday night.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the airline added.
Both are believed to be men, said Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, told the AP.
“Beyond that, their identities at this point are unknown, and that is some of the information that Broward sheriff’s office detectives are trying to sort out at this point,” Codd said.
“Detectives will investigate and research all aspects of this particular incident, trying to figure out where the flight originated from, where else it had been, the circumstances under which the individuals got onto the plane,” Codd added.
Though its most recent flight was from New York to Fort Lauderdale, the jet had been in both Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier on Monday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com. Authorities haven’t said where they think the people got into the wheel well.
However, “our information to date is that this matter still remains unclear and there is no immediate basis on which to conclude that they are Jamaicans,” Kamina Smith, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade of Jamaica, said in a post on the social platform X.
“We therefore remain in contact with the relevant authorities and will update the public as soon as greater clarity and accuracy has been brought to bear on this tragic matter,” she said.
Autopsies are planned for both bodies to determine how they died, Codd said.
The Transportation Security Administration is working closely with the airline, the airport, local law enforcement agencies and the Federal Aviation Administration, a TSA spokesperson said Tuesday.
It appears there was “no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday morning. That agency was not investigating, it said.
The fact that people were able to reach the wheel well of a commercial jetliner is the latest incident raising concerns about security within the nation’s aviation system.
“It speaks to the ability to access an aircraft possibly without going through any of the procedures that normal passengers would go through,” he said.
It’s the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.
The airline industry in recent months has also been dealing with unticketed passengers found in cabins.
In November, a Russian national who did not have a ticket boarded a Paris-bound Delta Air Lines flight in New York and was arrested when the plane touched down in France. She had somehow bypassed security to board the flight, authorities said.
Then on Christmas Eve, a passenger without a ticket boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Honolulu. The passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for departure, Delta said at the time.
Martin reported from Atlanta. Walker reported from New York. Associated Press writer Dave Collins reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
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