Mid-Air Emergency on Ryanair Flight: Passengers Save Tourist

A mid-air emergency on a Ryanair flight from Greece to Germany left one man with his head and shoulders hanging out of a shattered window before fellow passengers dragged him back to safety, officials and witnesses said Friday.

The tourist from Serbia, travelling from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, survived with friction burns and was in good condition in hospital, according to authorities. His seat belt, still fastened when the window gave way, may have been the difference between life and death.

Most on board had dozed off when the calm broke.

"Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tire bursting," a passenger told Radio Thessaloniki, quoted by AFP. In an instant, the cabin changed. "We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams ... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," she said.

Oxygen masks dropped. A strong smell filled the cabin. Then the most terrifying sight: the upper body of a man forced out through a window that was no longer there.

"The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off his seat belt," the woman said. Passengers nearby grabbed him and hauled him back inside, fighting the pressure and panic.

Greek media reported the incident occurred in the skies over North Macedonia. Local reports said a piece of debris that detached from one of the aircraft’s engines smashed into the window, blowing it out and triggering the sudden decompression.

Ryanair confirmed the emergency in a statement, saying the flight "returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight. The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal."

No other serious injuries were reported. The crew turned the aircraft back to Thessaloniki, where emergency services met the flight on landing.

The Irish carrier said a replacement aircraft was arranged to take the remaining passengers on to Memmingen, allowing the journey to continue after the dramatic interruption.

Investigators will now have to determine how an engine fragment, on a routine short-haul flight over Europe, ended up tearing a hole in the side of the cabin.