Two teenagers whose bodies were found in the landing gear of a JetBlue aircraft earlier this year have finally been identified.
Jeik Aniluz Lusi, 18, and Elvis Borques Castillo, 16, were discovered during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 6, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators used DNA technology to confirm their identities, police told CBS News Miami.
On the day of the discovery, the plane had flown from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. Afterward, it flew between Jamaica, New York, and Salt Lake City, Utah before concluding its journey in South Florida.
Officials considered the men’s ability to hide in the landing gear a major security breach, according to the outlet. The Independent has contacted JetBlue for comment.
Out of 128 cases of stowaways tracked by the Federal Aviation Administration between 1947 and 2020, over 75 percent of those attempts ended in death due to extreme dangers of the wheel well, including hypothermia, oxygen deprivation and the risk of being crushed by landing by landing gear mechanisms, Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, told the outlet.
Even survivors can suffer long-term physical damage from the noise, lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures, Schiavo said. Survival is rare for stowaways, and death is most likely caused by hypothermia and asphyxiation. Hiding in an airplane’s undercarriage is one of the most dangerous places for stowaways.
“The fact that this keeps happening is a serious aviation security violation,” Schiavo told the outlet.
Similar cases include a body that was found in December 2024 following a flight from Chicago to Maui. In 2021, authorities in Miami also found a man hiding in a wheel well, but he survived.
