A man was partially sucked out of a plane window on a flight from Greece to Germany on Friday after the window “fell loose,” according to a report from Ireland’s RTE. Passengers on board the Ryanair flight described a loud noise, such as a “tyre bursting” before cabin decompression and masks falling from the ceiling, the news outlet reports.
“There were screams (…) for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” said a woman RTE. “The masks fell off and there was a strong smell; a passenger’s head and shoulders were outside the window.”
The man was wearing a seat belt and was not completely sucked in, according to RTE, and other passengers helped push the man into the cabin. The terrifying incident occurred after a piece of debris fell off one of the Boeing 737-800’s engines, a claim that has not been verified by the airline.
The passenger is a Serbian tourist who was traveling from Thessaloniki, in Greece, to Memmingen, in Germany, according to France24and the incident occurred over North Macedonia. The man has not been publicly identified but is reportedly 61 years old and was hospitalized with friction burns, but has been described as being in “good condition.”
Several videos and images have been posted on social media showing people wearing oxygen masks and a broken airplane window.
Ryanair flight FR1879 is operated by Malta Air on behalf of Ryanair, according to an aviation news outlet. Let’s live and fly. As the outlet notes, it’s too early to say what caused the window to break, but if it was debris, it would be similar to a 2018 incident with Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, where debris from an engine failure shattered a window. In that incident, on a flight from New York to Dallas, a 43-year-old passenger, Jennifer Riordan He was partially sucked out the window and died.
Ryanair did not immediately respond to questions emailed to Gizmodo on Friday, but told RTE that the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window became dislodged during the flight.” The airline also said that “the plane landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal.”
The airline told France24 that a replacement plane was able to take passengers to their destination in Memmingen, Germany.
Boeing also did not respond to questions about whether it has been in contact with the airline about this incident. Gizmodo will update this article when we hear back.
