Man nearly sucked out of Ryanair plane window as wife held his legs, passengers say

A man was nearly sucked head-first out of a cabin window in mid-air on a Ryanair plane, passengers have said. Tracking data shows the plane was in the air for about 10 minutes when it abruptly descended 9,000ft (2,700m), with passengers telling local media they heard “some kind of explosion”. A Greek hospital official said a 61-year-old Serbian national was being treated for friction burns. “His wife held onto his legs for around five minutes to stop him from being sucked out,” Michalis Giannakos, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, said. Passengers told local media the man was left hanging head first out of the window as far as his shoulders before other passengers managed to pull him back inside. Those on board said the window was smashed by pieces of the jet’s engine – although Ryanair has not commented on this. The flight, FR1879, was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany on Friday. It was operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air on an 18-year-old Boeing 737-8AS. “We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” Christina, a fellow passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki. “The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.” Another passenger, Sofia, told Radio Thessaloniki: “When the oxygen masks dropped, we had no idea what was going to happen. We didn’t know whether we would make it back. We were sitting at the back of the aircraft, and we realised there had been some kind of explosion. 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.” Data from FlightRadar24 indicates the flight was airborne for just over an hour and reached 16,000ft before descending into Thessaloniki airport. In a statement, Ryanair said: “A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in flight. 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 at 9.53am local time this morning.” Giannakos said the man was “in shock, remains conscious”. The incident echoes a 2024 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 blowout, raising questions about cabin safety on older aircraft.