A Boeing 737-800 plane’s window unexpectedly shattered shortly after takeoff on Friday, sucking a Ryanair passenger’s head and shoulders out through the opening.
The flight had been in the air for about an hour when a loud bang, “like a tire bursting,” occurred. One traveler, who was only identified as a 60-year-old Serbian man, was then almost sucked out of the plane, according to CNN Greece.
“We immediately realized there had been a decompression,” a passenger told Radio Thessaloniki. “There were screams … for a moment, I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door.
“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.”
A piece of the engine had smashed into the plane’s window, causing the noise. The cabin then decompressed at an altitude of around 20,000 feet, partially sucking the passenger out of the opening.
The other passengers, including the man’s wife, held on to him
Michalis Giannakos, the president of Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees in Greece, told reporters that the passenger’s wife held on to him for five minutes by his feet to keep him inside the plane.
“With the help of many passengers, they managed to pull him into the cabin,” he said, adding that the passenger was “in shock” and was “hospitalized with friction burns.”
The plane from Memmingen Airport in Germany had to make an emergency landing at Thessaloniki, Greece. Ryanair said in a statement that the plane had to make the emergency landing because “a passenger window dislodged in flight.”
“The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” the statement from Ryaniar continued. “One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki. In order to minimize any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen.”