A man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight after it “detached” mid-air en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside.
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, reports RTE.
“Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes; there was a noise, like a tyre bursting,” one passenger said.
“We immediately realised there had been a decompression,” reports RTE.
“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,” reports RTE.
“Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt,” she said.
She said other passengers near the man helped to pull him back in, reports RTE.
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.
In a statement, Ryanair said the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight,” reports RTE.
“The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal,” it said.
The Irish airline said a replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen, reports RTE.
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