Ryanair passenger recounts being partly sucked out airplane window: 'I am lucky' - Fox Business

What the report says

Fox Business reported that Ryanair passenger Ljubisa Karović, a 61-year-old Serbian entrepreneur, described surviving a serious in-flight incident after a window broke on a Boeing 737 shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki, Greece, on July 10. The Malta Air-operated Ryanair flight was headed to Memmingen, Germany, when debris believed to be linked to engine damage struck the window, causing a loss of cabin pressure and an emergency return to Thessaloniki.

Karović told The Guardian, according to Fox Business, that he remembers the sound before the cabin emergency and considers himself fortunate to be alive. His wife, Svetlana, said passengers helped pull him back inside after he was partially drawn toward the broken window. Ryanair disputed any suggestion that crew members failed to act properly, saying passengers and crew had to remain seated with oxygen masks during the depressurization and rapid descent, and that staff helped after the aircraft reached a safer altitude.

Fox Business said Karović was hospitalized with neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, and is expected to wear a neck brace for six weeks before doctors decide whether surgery is needed. His lawyer described the episode as a near-death event, while Karović suggested his seatbelt may have helped keep him from being pulled farther out.

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said preliminary indications pointed to possible foreign-object damage to the engine, but the cause has not been determined. Fox Business reported that the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation after Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority delegated the probe, with Greek investigators participating.