A Ryanair passenger flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Greece following a cabin window that became dislodged shortly after take-off, reportedly because it was hit by a piece that came off the plane’s engine.
The airline said in an email that its Friday morning flight from the Greek city of Thessaloniki to Germany’s Memmingen returned “shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight”. The aircraft landed safely, and passengers returned to the terminal.
Several media reports said that one person was almost sucked out of the plane after the glass shattered. Witnesses told local outlets that the man, reportedly a Serbian national in his 60s, was left hanging out of the window up to his shoulders before fellow passengers pulled him back inside.
In a statement, Ryanair said: “The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.”
Ryanair said a replacement aircraft was arranged to take passengers to Memmingen several hours later.
Media reports in Greece and Germany quoted passengers describing a loud bang followed by the window breaking and oxygen masks falling from the ceiling shortly after the Boeing 737 had taken off.
Some passengers suggested the window may have been struck by debris from the aircraft’s engine, but Ryanair has not commented on this.
“We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams… for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” Christina, a fellow passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki.
“The masks dropped, and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.”
The aircraft, reported to be an 18-year-old Boeing 737, was operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) later told the media that it “is aware of the incident involving a Ryanair group aircraft, registered and operated by Malta Air, departing Thessaloniki this morning”.
“The IAA will provide any requested assistance to the aviation safety investigation authority in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate, to aid their investigation,” it said.
A similar incident occurred in 2018 when debris from a damaged engine shattered a window on a Southwest Airlines flight in the US.
A passenger was partially pulled out of the aircraft and later died from her injuries.