A terrifying mid-air incident aboard a Ryanair flight has left a 61-year-old passenger seriously injured after his head and right shoulder were reportedly pulled outside the aircraft through a shattered cabin window.
Svetlana Grković was travelling with her husband, Ljubisa Karović, from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, on Friday when the ordeal unfolded shortly after takeoff.
Svetlana said she immediately grabbed her husband’s legs as he was pulled head-first towards the damaged window.
“I thought: ‘If we die, we die together,’” she recalled.
According to her account, Ljubisa’s right shoulder and head were outside the aircraft. For nearly two minutes, she and two other passengers desperately fought to pull him back into the cabin.
“We pulled him back together. His entire face was deformed and blood was pouring from his nose and mouth,” she told BBC Serbia.
Passengers reported hearing what sounded like an explosion before a sudden and extreme decompression. Svetlana said it appeared that debris had struck the window next to her husband.
A technical adviser appointed by the family believes the incident may have begun with a failure of the aircraft’s right engine, with debris allegedly shattering the cabin window and triggering the rapid loss of pressure. Investigators have not confirmed that assessment.
Passengers said Ljubisa’s seatbelt remained fastened — a crucial factor that reportedly helped them keep hold of him.
Tracking data reportedly shows the aircraft had been airborne for around 10 minutes when it abruptly descended about 9,000 feet (2,700 metres).
Ryanair said the Thessaloniki-to-Memmingen flight returned shortly after takeoff after “a passenger window dislodged in flight”. The aircraft landed normally, and one passenger received medical assistance.
Fellow passengers described scenes of panic, screaming and difficulty breathing.
“We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn’t breathe,” passenger Sofia told Radio Thessaloniki.
Ljubisa remains seriously injured and in shock, according to his wife. She said his hand is particularly badly injured and he suffered burns. He reportedly cannot remember the entire event and starts shaking whenever he hears about aeroplanes.
Svetlana said the psychological impact has also been devastating.
“Those images just won’t leave,” she said, adding that she recently experienced a sudden feeling of suffocation while inside an elevator.
“Now the question is whether we will ever get on a plane again.”
The Boeing 737-800, reportedly operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air, is now the subject of an investigation by the Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority. As the US-built aircraft was reportedly over North Macedonian airspace when the incident occurred, multiple international aviation authorities are assisting the investigation.
The exact cause of the window failure and decompression remains under investigation.
