The Broward Sheriff’s Office on Thursday officially confirmed the identities of two teenagers found dead nearly three months ago inside the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
BSO said the first victim was identified as Jeik Aniluz Lusi, 18. The other was Elvis Borques Castillo, 16. Both were identified through extensive DNA testing, according to BSO.
NBC6 earlier this year reported the identities of the two teenage boys after interviewing their family members in the Dominican Republic.
The bodies of the two boys were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection on Jan. 6 at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, according to JetBlue officials, who said the aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after 11 p.m. from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Paramedics declared both people dead at the scene.
Though its most recent flight has been from New York to Fort Lauderdale, the jet had earlier that same day been in both Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.com.
The incident cast a spotlight on the growing concerns about security within the nation’s aviation system.
In late December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.
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