JetBlue Ground Crew Stumbles Upon Sleeping Stowaway in Cockpit at JFK

Airline employees at JFK caught a disoriented passenger hiding in the flight deck of a JetBlue plane that had just arrived from the Dominican Republic.

After the passengers and crew deplaned from JetBlue Airways Flight 810 from Las Américas International Airport (SDQ) at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) on Thursday, one man stayed behind. Port Authority police say Jarrett Stroud, 26, of Atlantic City hid while the plane emptied before somehow slipping into the cockpit unnoticed.

According to a report from WABC -TV New York, the New Jersey native then curled up in the flight deck of the Airbus A321 and took a nap. The would-be stowaway remained on the plane unsupervised for nearly an hour before ground crew members eventually found Stroud asleep in the cockpit.

NBC New York reports the ground crew escorted Stroud from the plane and turned him over to police. He reportedly resisted the JetBlue employees’ initial efforts to remove him from the aircraft and insisted he was hiding from people who were attempting to harm him.

Stroud was taken to nearby Jamaica Hospital for observation and later arrested on charges of third-degree criminal trespassing.

[Photo: JetBlue Airways]