In the wheel well of a JetBlue aircraft at Fort Lauderdale, two bodies were found dead on January 6, shortly after the aircraft had completed a direct flight from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. This is another instance of concerns raised about aviation security in recent months.
On Monday, January 6, the JetBlue Airbus A320 aircraft was under post-flight maintenance inspection when two bodies were found in the aircraft's wheel well.
The identities of the deceased are under investigation, and the circumstances surrounding their deaths are still being determined.
According to a report on Broadcastify, a gate technician at the Florida airport noticed two males who were 'not moving' in the landing gear area. The gate technician checked on the two men, and was made aware they were deceased.
The Broward County Medical Examiner will now perform autopsies on the individuals to determine their cause of death. According to the initial report, the bodies were already in a bad state of decomposition.
The incident did not affect ongoing operations at the airport; however, the aircraft remains grounded at FLL according to flight data and has been returned to the airline. JetBlue released this statement following the incident:
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the operator of JFK Airport, has not commented on the deaths. The NTSB is not involved in the case, as it doesn't appear to be involved with the flight crew or operations.
Flightradar24 identified the aircraft as N644JB, an 18-year-old Airbus A320-200 that joined the carrier on September 21, 2006. ch-aviation reports that the aircraft, which flew under French test registration F-WWBO, first took flight on August 29, 2006, before it was delivered to the airline. Two IAE V2527-A5 engines power it.
N644JB operated the below flights on Monday, January 6:
- B6 1760 departed Kingston, Jamaica at 01:24, arriving in New York JFK at 04:33
- B6 871 departed New York JFK at 07:49, arriving in Salt Lake City at 10:29
- B6 872 departed Salt Lake City at 12:51, arriving in New York JFK at 18:45
- B6 1801 departed New York JFK at 20:20, arriving in Fort Lauderdale at 23:03
According to the FAA, around 80% of people who try to fly in a wheel well or external component of an aircraft die during the flight due to the limited space available in the bay once the gear is retracted, as well as the lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures at cruising altitude.
