2 found dead in JetBlue landing gear at Fort Lauderdale airport. Expert says they likely froze to death

Milena Malaver and David Goodhue, Miami Herald on Jan 7, 2025

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MIAMI — Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport became the site of a grim discovery late Monday night when two people were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue carrier that had arrived from New York, according to officials.

Deputies from the Airport District responded to the call around 11:30 p.m. Paramedics from Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue also arrived on the scene, where both individuals were pronounced dead, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

The circumstances surrounding the bodies remain unclear. BSO’s Homicide and Crime Scene units are actively investigating, working to piece together how the two wound up in the aircraft’s landing gear compartment, which holds the wheels for takeoff and landing.

“This information should be considered preliminary, and as with any developing situation, the details may change,” BSO said in a press release on Tuesday.

‘Unbelievable way to die’

Gary Sheradsky, a South Florida airline-certified pilot and flight instructor with more than 30 years of flying experience, said the people likely froze to death because the wheel well of a plane is not pressurized nor heated like the cabin. And the air temperature at that altitude — likely more than 30,000 feet — is much colder than the air on the ground.

“How cold it is outside the plane is how cold it is in the wheel well,” Sheradskay, 62, told the Herald. “It was definitely below zero.”

The air at that height is also insufficient to sustain human life, meaning without being in a pressurized cabin, you’re not going to get enough oxygen to survive.

“You lose all sense of reality,” Sheradsky said. “It’s probably an unbelievable way to die.”

According to the aviation industry newsletter Flying, air temperature drops about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet of altitude. The National Weather Service says the temperature in New York City was about 32 degrees Monday night.

This means the air temperature at 30,000 feet, which is around the average altitude of an airliner in mid-flight, was about minus 88 degrees.

This is the second case of a dead body being found on a domestic flight within two weeks. On Christmas Eve, a dead body was discovered in the landing gear of a United Airlines flight that landed in Hawaii’s Kahului Airport. The plane had flown from Sao Paulo Brazil and went on to Chicago O’Hare International Airport before landing in Hawaii, according to CBS News.

Flight came from JFK

The bodies were found during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection, according to JetBlue. The plane had flown in from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City as flight 1801, according to JetBlue.

JetBlue said they are also awaiting answers, including the identities of the people found.

“This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred,’ the carrier said in a statement to the Herald.

The Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct autopsies to determine the causes of death.

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