Ryanair was forced to make an emergency landing in Greece on Friday after a window on the Boeing Co 737 dislodged soon after take-off, reportedly because it was hit by a piece that came off the engine.
A window in the passenger cabin “dislodged in-flight,” the airline said, and several media outlets reported that one person was almost sucked out of the plane after the glass shattered.
A passenger told state radio broadcaster ERT she heard a noise “like a tire bursting,” and people started screaming because of the cabin decompression, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
“The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window,” she said, according to the report. “Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.”
The Breaking Aviation News & Videos account on X.com, citing local media and a hospital union, said a piece detached from an engine and broke the window, and a 61-year-old Serbian man “came out in the air and was restrained by his wife.”
The man is currently hospitalised with friction burns and will undergo a scan to see if he has any fractures, the account said.
Michalis Giannakos, a trade union official, said the man was taken to hospital suffering from shock and friction burns from the freezing wind outside the airliner, according to the Greek news website Newsit.
The president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees said the incident was “almost a tragedy”.
The account’s unverified video purportedly shows the shattered window on the right side of the fuselage, with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
The plane had just taken off from Thessaloniki, Greece, and was bound for Memmingen, Germany, when the incident occurred, according to an airline statement. The pilots turned back to Thessaloniki, where one passenger requested and received medical assistance after landing.
Ryanair in a statement said a flight to Memmingen on Friday morning returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight.
It said the aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal.
“One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki. In order to minimise any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen which departed Thessaloniki this morning,” Ryanair said.
When asked if it would have any role in investigating this incident, given that it regulates safety issues and Ryanair is Dublin-headquartered with many of its aircraft registered here, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said it was aware of the incident involving a Ryanair aircraft, registered and operated by Malta Air, which departed Thessaloniki on Friday.
“The independent investigation of this incident is a matter for the relevant aviation safety investigation authorities. The IAA will provide any assistance requested by the Aviation Safety Investigation Authority in Greece and the Civil Aviation Directorate within Transport Malta, in accordance with established international aviation safety procedures,” the IAA statement said. – Bloomberg and Guardian
