A passenger narrowly avoided being sucked out of a window mid-air after a panel dislodged during a Ryanair flight. The incident occurred on a flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, shortly after takeoff on Friday morning.
Ryanair confirmed in a statement that the flight returned "shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight." The airline stated the aircraft landed normally and passengers were returned to the terminal. Medical assistance was provided on the ground to one passenger in Thessaloniki.
Witnesses described hearing a loud bang followed by the window breaking and oxygen masks deploying from the ceiling. One passenger, identified by local media as a Serbian man in his 60s, was reportedly left hanging headfirst out of the window for several minutes. Other passengers managed to pull him back inside the cabin. He had reportedly not removed his seatbelt.
"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," 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."
A replacement aircraft was arranged by Ryanair, and passengers eventually continued their journey to Memmingen several hours later. The aircraft involved was an 18-year-old Boeing 737 operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair.
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) confirmed it is aware of the incident and will assist the aviation safety investigation authorities in Greece and Malta. This event draws a parallel to a 2018 incident on a Southwest Airlines flight in the U.S., where a damaged engine component caused a window to break, resulting in a passenger's death after she was partially pulled out of the aircraft.