A photo has emerged of the broken window on a Ryanair Boeing 737 that a passenger was partially sucked through shortly after takeoff on Friday.
The incident occurred on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece and forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing, reports RTE.
Eyewitness photos from Despoina Papapavlou, one of the passengers on board, showed the smashed window.
Ms Papapavlou was travelling to Germany with a friend when their journey turned into a “terrifying experience on board,” reports RTE.
Her friend said the experience was so traumatic that they would think twice before flying again.
Reuters verified the interior of the cabin, including the seats and windows, which matched archive images of a Ryanair Boeing 737, reports RTE.
The broken window also matched the reports of the incident.
Corroborating visuals from local media also matched the shape and cracks of the broken window, reports RTE.
The date when the images were taken was confirmed by original file metadata.
The plane was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement, reports RTE.
It is unclear what led to the broken window.
“The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair said, reports RTE.
The Irish airline said a replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen.
The Serbian man who was partially sucked through the window was transferred to the AHEPA University General Hospital in Thessaloniki but did not face life-threatening injuries, the Serbian consulate said, adding that doctors were determining the extent of his injuries, reports RTE.
Serbian media quoted a passenger telling Radio Thessaloniki that the man’s head and shoulders were outside the aircraft before fellow passengers pulled him back in.
The US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the plane was a Boeing 737 NG — the version before the current MAX generation of 737 planes, reports RTE.
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