A man was partially sucked out of a plane window on a flight from Greece to Germany on Friday after the window “detached,” according to a report from Ireland’s RTE. Passengers aboard the Ryanair flight described a loud noise, like a “tire bursting” before decompression of the cabin and masks dropping from the ceiling, the news outlet reports.
“There were screams […] for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” one woman told RTE. “The masks dropped, and there was a strong smell; the head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window.”
The man was wearing his seatbelt and wasn’t completely sucked out, according to RTE, and other passengers helped pull the man back inside the cabin. The terrifying incident occurred after a piece of debris detached from one of the Boeing 737-800’s engines, a claim that has not been verified by the airline.
The passenger is a tourist from Serbia who was traveling from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, according to France24, and 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 in “good condition.”
Several videos and images have been posted to 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 aviation news outlet Live and Let’s Fly. As the outlet notes, it’s too early to say what caused the window to break, but if it was debris, that would be similar to a 2018 incident with Southwest Airlines flight 1380, where debris from an engine failure broke a window. In that incident, a flight from New York to Dallas, a 43-year-old passenger, Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked out of the window and died.
Ryanair didn’t immediately respond to Gizmodo’s emailed questions on Friday, but told RTE that the flight, “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight.” The airline also said that the “aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal.”
The airline told France24 that a replacement aircraft was able to take the passengers to their destination in Memmingen, Germany.
Boeing has also not responded to questions about whether it’s been in contact with the airline about this incident. Gizmodo will update this article when we hear back.
