Native legislation enforcement officers in Fort Lauderdale are investigating the deaths of two people discovered within the touchdown gear compartment of a JetBlue Airways Corp. aircraft after it arrived on the Florida airport on Monday.
A consultant for the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace, whose jurisdiction contains Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport, stated deputies responded to a name relating to the 2 people late Monday night and that paramedics pronounced each lifeless on scene.
“BSO’s Murder and Crime Scene models responded to research the circumstances of the incident, and the investigation is ongoing,” the workplace stated in an announcement. “The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Workplace will carry out autopsies to find out the causes of dying of each people.”
JetBlue Flight 1801 traveled to Florida from John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport in New York. The service stated the aircraft was present process a routine post-flight upkeep test when the people have been found. The plane, an 18-year-old Airbus A320, had additionally flown from Kingston in Jamaica to JFK and to Salt Lake Metropolis earlier on Jan. 6, in keeping with flight-tracking web site FlightRadar24.
“At the moment, the identities of the people and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the plane stay beneath investigation,” a consultant for the airline stated.
Stowaway makes an attempt on plane most frequently lead to dying. The wheel wells that retailer the touchdown gear aren’t pressurized, that means people who attempt to conceal away in them usually die from a scarcity of oxygen when the aircraft reaches excessive altitude, or from hypothermia as a result of extraordinarily chilly temperatures. There’s additionally a threat of being crushed by retracting touchdown gear after takeoff or falling from an ideal peak as soon as the wheels are deployed once more for touchdown.
In response to a 2011 report, researchers on the Federal Aviation Administration’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute discovered that solely 18 individuals out of 89 survived makes an attempt to fly within the wheel effectively or different compartments outdoors of the plane cabin, excluding the place cargo is held. That’s about an 80% fatality fee.
The JetBlue incident follows an analogous tragedy on a current United Airways Holdings Inc. flight from Chicago to Hawaii. On Dec. 24, a physique was present in one of many wheel wells of the aircraft after it landed in Kahului Airport, the service stated in an announcement on Tuesday.
United stated it’s working with legislation enforcement on an investigation.
Picture: A JetBlue Airbus A320 aircraft lands at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg)
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