JetBlue stowaways’ bodies were badly decomposed raising possibility they were there for multiple flights: report
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According to FAA data, approximately 80 percent of people who try to stowaway in external compartments on aircraft — such as wheel bays — die. The bodies of the stowaways who rode to Florida in a JetBlue airplane's landing gear compartment were reportedly decomposed when they were found by airport staff, according to a report.
The remains of the men were found on Monday inside the compartment after a JetBlue plane landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. An airline worker was inspecting the landing gear when they stumbled onto the deceased stowaways. “A gate technician in the landing gear area noticed two males who appear to be Signal 7, advised they are not moving in the landing gear area,” an unidentified individual said over a police radio during the incident. "Signal 7" is a police radio code used to describe a dead body.
The flight departed Jamaica earlier in the day, leading to some speculation that the men who died are Jamaican, though there has been no official identification. If they climbed into the landing gear compartment in Jamaica, they likley did not survive the plane's first stop. The A320 departed from Kingston just after 1 a.m., where it flew to JFK International Airport in New York. It was below 30 degrees the day the men were discovered, and would have been much, much colder at higher altitudes.
The plane then flew from New York to Salt Lake City, Utah, around 7:30 a.m., and made a return flight just before 7 p.m. It's final flight of the day took the plane from New York to Florida, where the bodies of the men were found near the landing gear.
