NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Two people were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue flight out of JFK Airport on Monday night, officials said.
Flight 1801 departed JFK shortly before 8 p.m. Monday and landed at its destination of Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood Airport in Florida, where the alarming discovery was made.
Crews were doing routine post-flight maintenance inspection on the Airbus A320-232 after the 11 p.m. landing, when they came across the two bodies, according to JetBlue.
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.
“At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” the airline said in a statement.
“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 continued.
It appears there was “no involvement of the flight crew or operation of the airplane,” the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Tuesday morning. The agency said it was not investigating.
The incident comes just two weeks after a body was found in the wheel well of the main landing gear on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Maui on Christmas Eve. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, wheel well stowaways have a mortality rate of over 77%.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.