A 61-year-old Serbian man was nearly sucked head-first out of a cabin window on a Ryanair flight, saved only because his wife gripped his legs for five minutes as the plane plunged 9,000ft. “His wife held onto his legs for around five minutes to stop him from being sucked out,” said Michalis Giannakos, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, who confirmed the man was being treated for friction burns and shock.
The incident occurred on flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air on an 18-year-old Boeing 737. Tracking data shows the plane had been airborne for about 10 minutes when it suddenly descended. Passengers told local media they heard “some kind of explosion”. Christina, a passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki: “We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams… for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door.”
“A 61-year-old man was nearly sucked out of a Ryanair plane window mid-flight; his wife held his legs for five minutes.”
The man was lifted from his seat into the slipstream, hanging headfirst out of the window as far as his shoulders before others pulled him back. “The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt,” Christina added. Oxygen masks dropped and the cabin depressurised. Another passenger, Sofia, said: “We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn’t breathe. The man who was injured was bleeding and then lost consciousness several times, most likely because of the lack of oxygen and the shock.”
Some passengers believe pieces of the engine smashed the window, though Ryanair has not commented on this. In a statement, the airline said the flight returned “shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in flight”. It added: “The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki. A replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen.” Giannakos described the episode as “almost a tragedy”.