Two men were discovered dead inside a wheel well of a JetBlue plane flying from New York City to Florida, the airline announced Tuesday.
A JetBlue spokesperson confirmed to The Post that the bodies were discovered inside the landing gear compartment during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
According to FlightAware.com, the aircraft most recently flew Flight 1801 from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and landed in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday.
“The deceased are both males. Aside from that, their identities are unknown at this time,” Carey Codd, a Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, told CNN.
He did not confirm the dead men’s nationality. The Jamaica Observer reported that both were believed to be Jamaicans, but their identities had yet to be confirmed.
“The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will perform autopsies to determine the causes of death of both individuals,” according to Codd.
A law enforcement source told CNN that the bodies were severely decomposed.
Officials said the airline is withholding the identities of the deceased while they investigate how they gained access to the aircraft.
“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the spokesman stated.
The Transportation Security Administration is investigating the deaths, with assistance from the airline, the FAA, and local law enforcement.
The National Transportation Safety Board told CNN that it is not part of the investigation because “it appears that the incident had no involvement of the flight crew or the operation of the airplane.”
