Passenger treated after Ryanair flight window shatters over Greece

A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen turned back after a Boeing 737-800 window shattered as the aircraft climbed through about 15,000 feet, leaving one passenger in need of medical treatment on the ground. The jet, registration 9H-QEU, was operating as flight FR-1879 for Malta Air on behalf of Ryanair.

Passengers on board described a violent cabin event as the seat by the window was thrown open and the man sitting there was partly pulled into the opening before other passengers hauled him back inside. The passenger has been widely identified as a 61-year-old Serbian man. Some accounts said three other people were taken to hospital and later released, though Ryanair has only confirmed that one passenger requested and received medical assistance after the aircraft returned to Thessaloniki.

Ryanair said the aircraft landed normally in Thessaloniki after the incident on Friday, July 10, 2026, and that a replacement aircraft was arranged to continue the journey to Germany. That replacement departed Thessaloniki at 9:35 a.m., reducing the delay for the remaining passengers.

The incident has drawn attention because it recalls the small number of in-flight decompression events that end with a broken window or structural failure. Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport officials have opened an investigation into the cause of the failure, as they examine why the cabin window shattered while the aircraft was still climbing. The event was especially alarming because the passenger was briefly exposed to the opening before fellow travelers pulled him back into the cabin.

Aviation specialists will likely focus on the window assembly, the pressurization sequence, and the way the crew managed the cabin after the failure. The case is being compared with the 2018 Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 disaster, in which an engine explosion caused a decompression event that killed one passenger and injured seven others. In this case, the aircraft returned safely, but the episode underscored how quickly a localized cabin failure can become a major emergency at altitude.