Bodies found in plane wheel well hours after Jamaica trip

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP):

An investigation is under way to determine the identities of two bodies discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft in the United States on Monday night and how the security breach occurred. 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.

The authorities have not said where they think the people got into the wheel well.

The plane’s recent stop in Jamaica gave rise to speculation that the people could be Jamaican.

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, 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.

The bodies were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection 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.

“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.

Paramedics declared both people dead at the scene, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday. The agency’s homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said.

Both are believed to be men, said Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.

“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.

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 is 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.