Moments after a Ryanair jet lifted off from Thessaloniki, Greece, what should have been an ordinary flight to Germany turned into a midair emergency: a passenger was partially sucked through a window that became dislodged, according to two airport sources, prompting the aircraft to turn back and land.
Eyewitness photos from, Despoina Papapavlou, one of the passengers on board the flight, showed the smashed window on board the Ryanair flight.
Papapavlou, travelling to Germany with a friend, said their trip became a “terrifying experience on board” as the situation unfolded in the cabin.
Her friend, speaking to Reuters, said the shock was so severe it had left them questioning whether they would fly again.
The broken window also matches reports of an incident in which a passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair Boeing 737 flight shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in Greece yesterday.
Corroborating visuals published by local media also align with what passengers described, matching the distinctive shape and spiderweb of cracks across the shattered window.
The date when the images were taken was confirmed by original file metadata.
The flight had been scheduled to operate from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany, but it returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement.
The cause of the window failure has not been established.
“The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair said.
Ryanair added that it made a replacement aircraft available to carry the remaining passengers onward to Memmingen.
It is unclear what led to the broken window (Image credit: Despoina Papapavlou)
The Serbian national who was partially sucked through the window was taken to the AHEPA University General Hospital in Thessaloniki and did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the Serbian consulate said, adding that doctors were still determining the full extent of his injuries.
Serbian media cited a passenger who told Radio Thessaloniki that the man’s head and shoulders were outside the aircraft before other passengers managed to pull him back inside.
The US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the aircraft was a Boeing 737 NG, the version that preceded the current MAX generation of 737 planes.
