A passenger on board a Ryanair flight has described the terrifying moments when a man was nearly sucked out of the aircraft after a cabin window detached mid-air on a flight from Greece to Germany.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the passenger said the man, a Serbian tourist, was partially pulled out of the aircraft before fellow passengers managed to pull him back inside. Authorities said he was hospitalised with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition.
“Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tyre bursting,” the passenger told Radio Thessaloniki.
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“We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams … for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” she said.
“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.”
She said passengers seated nearby helped pull the man back into the aircraft.
Greek media reported the incident occurred while the aircraft was flying over North Macedonia and said the window was shattered after being struck by debris that detached from one of the plane’s engines.
In a statement, Ryanair said the flight returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff after a passenger window detached during the flight.
“The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal,” the airline said.
Ryanair said a replacement aircraft was arranged to take the remaining passengers to Memmingen, Germany.
What went wrong?
The president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees (POEDIN) described the incident as “almost a tragedy”, as per The Guardian.
Images and videos reveal that the broken window led to oxygen masks falling from the ceiling due to cabin depressurization.
“A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged in flight,” stated a Ryanair spokesperson.
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(With inputs from AFP)
