Grizly Discovery Made in Landing Gear of JetBlue Flight

The bodies of two people were found inside the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue flight from New York City to Florida on Monday night. The identities of the deceased have yet to be released, and authorities are investigating how they gained access to the aircraft.

The grim discovery came about during a routine post-flight maintenance inspection at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, JetBlue confirmed to CBS News. Flight 1801 had departed from John F. Kennedy International Airport at at 8:20 p.m. and landed just after 11:00 p.m. with a cruising altitude of approximately 38,000 feet, flightradar24 data shows.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office is working with homicide detectives to investigate how the two individuals wound up in the wheel compartment. However, CBS News senior transportation correspondent Kris Van Cleave pointed out that the wheel wells of aircraft are typically not pressurized or heated and temperatures can plummet well below freezing at altitude, not to mention the frigid cold the east coast has been experiencing.

Van Cleave noted that due to the subfreezing temperatures during a flight, those who choose to stow away in the wheel well rarely survive. The Medical Examiner's Office will perform autopsies on the bodies to determine the causes of death of both unnamed individuals.

"The circumstances surrounding how they accessed the aircraft remain under investigation," JetBlue said in a statement. "This is a heartbreaking situation, and we are committed to working closely with authorities to support their efforts to understand how this occurred."

The incident comes on the heels of another similar discovery made in the wheel well of a flight from Chicago O'Hare International Airport to Maui on Christmas Eve.