Investigation Launched After Two Bodies Found On JetBlue Plane

Two dead bodies were recovered from a JetBlue plane while maintenance crews were conducting a routine inspection of the aircraft’s landing gear when it landed in Florida on Monday evening, officials announced.

JetBlue Flight 1801 had travelled from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City before landing at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Monday evening. The bodies were found during a routine maintenance inspection of the aircraft after it touched down in Fort Lauderdale, A JetBlue spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News. “This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,” the spokesperson added.

An N768JB JetBlue Airways Airbus taxis on the runway of McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Photo: Tomás Del Coro

Paramedics pronounced the individuals dead on the scene after they were removed from the JetBlue plane, according to the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. The agency’s crime scene and homicide units are currently investigating the incident, according to a report from the Associated Press.  The identities of the two deceased individuals — who were discovered between the plane’s landing gear and wheel — have not yet been released as the investigation remains ongoing.

The JetBlue flight departed New York — where temperatures had plunged well below freezing — shortly before 8 p.m. on Monday. The plane then landed in Fort Lauderdale about five minutes late at 11:10 p.m., according to flight tracker data.  While the plane’s must recent flight had come from New York, JetBlue Flight 1801 had been in both Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier on Monday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com. Authorities have not provided any information as to where the deceased individuals could have come from.

Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, told the Associated Press that both bodies recovered from the JetBlue plane are believed to be males. “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,” he added.

A JetBlue Airbus A321 takes off from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Photo: Tomás Del Coro

Due to the aircraft’s stop in Jamaica, a government official asked whether the two victims could have been Jamaican. “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 of Jamaica, wrote in an X post in response to speculation. “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 added.

Codd told the Associated Press that autopsies will be performed in order to determine a cause of death for the victims. 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. Investigators appear to have ruled out the possibility of a connection between the deaths and JetBlue staff, however.

Monday’s discovery of bodies on a JetBlue plane marks the second such incident in less than a month. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui. The victim — a 15-year-old boy — would only have been able to access the landing gear from the outside of the plane.

Both incidents have spurred national security concerns due to the ease with which the stowaways were able to access aircraft with ease. “What you have to look at is what gaps were exploited and what layers of security didn’t work to allow something like this to happen,” said Jeff Price, professor of aviation at Metropolitan State University of Denver. “It speaks to the ability to access an aircraft possibly without going through any of the procedures that normal passengers would go through,” he added.