Man nearly sucked out of ‘detached’ window on Ryanair flight
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The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window of the Ryanair plane, said a fellow passenger.
PHOTO: REUTERS
- A passenger on a Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen was nearly sucked out after a window detached mid-air, causing decompression and emergency oxygen masks to deploy.
- The man suffered friction burns but was saved by other passengers who pulled him back inside; the incident occurred over North Macedonia due to debris from an engine.
- The plane returned safely to Thessaloniki, and Ryanair provided a replacement aircraft to complete the journey to Germany for the remaining passengers.
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THESSALONIKI, Greece - A man was nearly sucked out of the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, witnesses and officials said on July 10.
The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, has been hospitalised with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition, the authorities said.
“Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tyre bursting,” a fellow passenger told Radio Thessaloniki.
“We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” the woman 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.”
Other passengers near the man helped to pull him in, she said.
Greek media reported the incident had occurred over North Macedonia, and said the window had been broken by a piece of debris that detached from one of the plane’s engines.
Ryanair in a statement said that the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window detached during the flight. The aircraft landed normally, and the passengers returned to the terminal”.
A replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen, the Irish carrier said. AFP
