Passenger Nearly Sucked Out of Window in Ryanair Flight Incident

A passenger was reportedly nearly sucked out of a cabin window in mid‑air on a Ryanair‑owned plane.

Witnesses told local media that a Serbian citizen in his 60s was left hanging head‑first from the window, the shoulders removed from the seat for several minutes before passengers on the Malta Air flight managed to pull him back inside.

Ryanair says the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen returned shortly after take‑off when the window dislodged inflight. The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal; one passenger received medical assistance on the ground.

The Irish budget airline arranged a replacement aircraft to bring the remaining passengers to Memmingen a few hours later.

Greek and German media reported a loud bang, followed by the window breaking and oxygen masks falling from the ceiling, shortly after the Boeing 737 had taken off. Passengers believe the window was smashed by fragments of the jet’s engine, although Ryanair has not commented on the exact cause.

"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams…for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," one passenger, Christina, 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 had not taken off his seat belt.'

The aircraft, believed to be 18 years old, was operated by Malta Air. The Irish Aviation Authority notified the BBC that it is aware of the incident and will provide assistance to the aviation safety investigation authority in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate for the investigation.

A prior similar incident occurred in 2018 when debris from a damaged engine caused a window to break on a Southwest Airlines flight, partially suffocating a passenger.