Passenger partially sucked from Ryanair flight after window dislodges in Greece

A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen was forced back to Greece after a passenger window dislodged shortly after takeoff, briefly pulling a man toward the opening before the aircraft made an emergency return. The passenger was 61-year-old Serbian national Ljubiša Karović. He was treated after landing and later described by a hospital official as having injuries that were not life-threatening.

His wife, Svetlana Grković, said the family ordeal turned violent inside the cabin in seconds. She said her husband was “seriously injured and in shock,” and said she grabbed his legs while other passengers helped haul him back into the plane. She said half of his body was outside the aircraft for about two minutes and that he was exposed up to his chest. “If we die, we die together,” she recalled saying as the cabin crew and passengers struggled to pull him in.

The flight, FR1879, was operated by Malta Air, the Ryanair subsidiary, and had been in the air for about 10 minutes before dropping roughly 9,000 feet, or 2,700 meters, before the return to Thessaloniki. The cabin lost pressure and the crew began an emergency descent. The aircraft landed normally after the return. A Greek hospital official said Karović was treated for neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, and his hand was badly injured and burned.

Greek authorities are in contact with Ryanair’s chief pilot in Malta and the airline’s safety department as investigators work to determine whether the failure was isolated or tied to a larger equipment problem. Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 in 2018 involved an uncontained engine failure that led to a fatal depressurization event and later Federal Aviation Administration safety directives. Investigators are looking at an apparent engine-fan-blade failure that may have struck and shattered the window.