Gov't says no basis yet to conclude people found dead on JetBlue flight are Jamaicans

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith, says "there is no immediate basis" on which to conclude that two people found dead in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at a South Florida airport are Jamaicans.

She says the Government is still working to get further information to be able to provide clarity on the matter.

The bodies were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection on Monday night at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the airline said in a statement to The Associated Press.

The aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F Kennedy International Airport in New York.

"At this time, the identities of the individuals and the circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation," JetBlue's statement said.

In a statement on social media platform X on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson Smith said, "While there is speculation regarding the nationalities of the persons found, 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."

"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 stated.

Paramedics declared both people dead at the scene, the Broward County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. The agency's homicide and crime scene units are investigating, it said.

Both are believed to be men, said Carey Codd, a spokesman for the Broward County Sheriff's Office, told the AP.

“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," Codd added.

Autopsies are planned for both bodies to determine how they died, he said.

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 was not investigating, it said.

It's the second time over the past month that a body has been found in the wheel well of an airplane. In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.

The airline industry in recent months has also been dealing with unticketed passengers found in cabins.

In November, a Russian national who did not have a ticket boarded a Paris-bound Delta Air Lines flight in New York and was arrested when the plane touched down in France. She had somehow bypassed security to board the flight, authorities said.

Then on Christmas Eve, a passenger without a ticket boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from Seattle to Honolulu. The passenger was discovered while the plane was taxiing for departure, Delta said at the time.

- Contributions from AP

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