By JEFF MARTIN and FREIDA FRISARO | Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport, authorities said.
The bodies were located in the wheel well area Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said in a statement to The Associated Press.
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They were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection, JetBlue said.
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.
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Paramedics declared both of them dead at the scene, the Broward County sheriff’s office said Tuesday. The agency’s homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said. The individuals’ names were not immediately released.
It’s 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.
In November, a Russian national who did not have a ticket boarded a Paris-bound Delta Air Lines flight in New York and was arrested when the plane touched down in France. She had somehow bypassed security to board the flight, authorities said.
Then on Christmas Eve, a passenger without a ticket boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Honolulu. The passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for departure, Delta said at the time.
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Martin reported from Atlanta.
