Two dead teenage Dominican stowaways discovered in the wheel well of a JetBlue plane this month have raised questions about aviation security.
This JetBlue Airways Airbus A320 is similar to one in which two Dominican teens perished in the ... [+]
On the evening of Monday, Jan. 6, two bodies were discovered in the wheel well of a JetBlue plane that had landed at Fort Lauderdale International Airport from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The two male bodies were “badly decomposed,” CNN reported, citing a law enforcement official.
Detectives from the Broward Sheriff’s Office recently traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet with the “possible family members of the deceased,” according to a statement provided to Forbes.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office identified the deceased individuals as Jeik Anilus Lusi and Elvis Borquez Castillo, teen stowaways from the Dominican Republic who died of asphyxiation, NBC6 South Florida reported, citing conversations with family members.
On Jan. 5, one day before the bodies were discovered, the same Airbus A320 left Gregorio Luperon International Airport in the Dominican Republic at 12:54 p.m. CST for JFK airport and then flew from JFK to Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston, Jamaica, according to flight-tracking data from FlightAware.
On Jan. 6, the plane flew four more flights—Kingston to JFK, JFK to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to JFK and JFK to Fort Lauderdale—before the bodies were discovered, six flights and roughly 33 hours after the plane left the Dominican Republic.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires the pilot in command to ensure a pre-flight external inspection of the aircraft, “including the fuselage, landing gear and tires,” the FAA said in an emailed statement to Forbes. But not every part of the Airbus jet’s wheel well is visible during a pre-flight walkaround. In general, “pilots don’t open the inner-well gear doors” on an A320, said John Cox, an aviation safety expert and retired commercial airline pilot who flew Airbuses for six years. “The pilots walk around the airplane before every flight, but opening those inner-well doors is more of a maintenance procedure done every two or three days. If [the teenagers] were wedged in there, it would not necessarily be easy for the pilots to see.” JetBlue did not respond to a request to clarify how often maintenance crews check behind the inner-well doors on a plane.
“The Occam's Razor—the most obvious explanation—is these two individuals got on the plane in the Dominican Republic,” Mary Schiavo, aviation safety expert and former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, told Forbes. “Security was breached at [Gregorio Luperon airport]
According to the U.S. code outlining the security standards at foreign airports, the TSA is responsible for assessing and evaluating security standards at foreign airports, ensuring they meet international standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and comply with U.S. regulations when serving flights to the U.S. “TSA takes its role in global transportation security very seriously,” an agency spokesperson told Forbes. “While TSA has no legal authority over foreign airports or foreign government civil aviation agencies, the agency continues to work with the air carriers that it does regulate, including flights inbound from foreign airports, to ensure the security of the aviation system.”
2 Bodies Found In Landing Gear Of JetBlue Plane—Here’s What Investigators Will Look For (Forbes)
Do Stowaway Passengers Pose An Airline Security Risk? (Forbes)