Two people have been found dead in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane after a routine inspection in Florida.
The airline said the flight had most recently landed in Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International after travelling from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport with the flight number 1801.
JetBlue confirmed the bodies were discovered during a post-flight maintenance check on Monday after the aircraft touched down.
“Tragically, both individuals were deceased. At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” the company said early on Tuesday.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the statement added.
No details were given on the two dead people or how they gained access to the plane.
The landing gear compartment – also called a wheel well – is a section underneath the aircraft which stores the retractable landing gear.
Stowaways have used the void in a landing gear compartment before, but often it can prove fatal.
A 2011 report by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), determined that around 80% of stowaways do not survive the journey.
Risks include being crushed when the gear retracts, falling, death from hypothermia or hypoxia (lack of oxygen).
On Christmas Eve, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that departed Chicago’s O’Hare airport and arrived at Kahului Airport, Hawaii.
