JetBlue confirmed on Tuesday that two men were found dead in the wheel well of an airplane during a post-flight inspection after a flight from New York City to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A JetBlue spokesperson told The New York Post that two decomposed bodies were found in an Airbus A320’s landing gear compartment during the airline’s post-flight inspection at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Monday night.
CBS News reported that JetBlue’s Airbus A320 departed from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport at roughly 8:20 p.m. on Monday night before arriving at Florida’s Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport at 11:03 p.m.
According to CNN, an unidentified individual issued an alert on the Broward County Sheriff’s Office radio at roughly 11:26 p.m., saying, “A gate technician in the landing gear area noticed two males who appear to be Signal 7, advised they are not moving in the landing gear area.” The outlet noted that “Signal 7” is a code law enforcement officials use to describe a deceased individual.
According to The New York Post, JetBlue confirmed that the airline was still investigating “the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft.” In a statement obtained by the outlet, JetBlue said, “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred.”
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A law enforcement source told CNN that the bodies of the two deceased individuals were significantly decomposed.
According to CNN, Carey Codd, a Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, confirmed that the two individuals found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue airplane were “both males,” however, Codd noted that “beyond that, their identities at this time are unknown.”
Codd explained that law enforcement detectives are planning on investigating and researching “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.”
According to The New York Post, the Biden-Harris administration’s Transportation Security Administration is currently investigating the mysterious deaths of the two men in coordination with JetBlue, local law enforcement agencies, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
Additionally, The New York Post reported that the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed that it is not participating in the investigation since “it appears that the incident had no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane.”
