The two males discovered in the landing gear of a U.S. passenger plane in January have been identified as teenagers.
On April 4, CBS and other U.S. media outlets reported that Florida authorities had confirmed the identities of two bodies found in the landing gear of a JetBlue aircraft. The deceased were identified as Jeik Aniluz Lusi, 18, and Elvis Borques Castillo, 16.
The JetBlue flight, originating in the Dominican Republic with stops in New York and Jamaica, arrived at Fort Lauderdale Airport in Florida. On January 7, maintenance crews made the grim discovery of the bodies in the landing gear—the structure that connects the aircraft’s fuselage to its wheels.
Broward County law enforcement recovered the remains and, through DNA analysis, confirmed that both teenagers were from the Dominican Republic.
It appears the youths had stowed away on the aircraft. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), between 1947 and 2020, there were 128 documented cases of individuals illegally boarding passenger planes—approximately 75% of which resulted in fatalities.
Hiding in an aircraft’s landing gear is extremely dangerous, as extreme cold, oxygen deprivation, and the risk of falling during ascent drastically reduce survival chances.
In a similar incident on December 24 of last year, a body was discovered in the landing gear of an aircraft that had flown from Kahului Airport in Maui to Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
