FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft in South Florida on Monday night, authorities said.

According to officials with the airline, the bodies were found during routine post-flight inspections after the aircraft landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, WPLG reported.

The victims were already dead when they were found, a JetBlue spokesperson confirmed to the television station.

Broward Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Carey Codd confirmed that Airport District deputies responded to the scene at about 11:30 p.m. ET, WPLG reported. Paramedics pronounced the victims dead at the scene.

“Tragically, both individuals were deceased. At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “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 added.

According to flight radar data, Flight 1801 arrived at 11:03 p.m. ET Monday from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction in the case, said detectives are working to learn how the people ended up in the wheel compartment of the aircraft, WFOR reported.

The Airbus A320 flight left New York at 8:20 p.m. ET and night temperatures were frigid, according to the television station. The plane’s cruising altitude was approximately 38,000 feet, and the flight took 2 hours, 43 minutes to reach South Florida.

“I don’t know how airplanes work, but it’s surprising to me that a body could stay in a wheel well for that long,” JetBlue passenger Sarah Schaefer told WPLG. “I wouldn’t think that I would be able to survive any kind of air travel, knowing how high planes go, how cold it is up there. Maybe people are really desperate to get out of bad situations -- that would be my guess.”

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will perform autopsies to determine the causes of death of both individuals, according to the television station.

Officials did not publicly reveal the identities of the two dead people, NBC News reported.

A spokesperson for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport told WPLG that there were “no impacts to FLL operations due to this incident.”

© 2025 Cox Media Group