A passenger on a flight operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air was partially sucked out of a broken window shortly after take-off from Thessaloniki in Greece on Friday, Reuters and the Associated Press reported, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
The aircraft was supposed to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen Airport near Munich in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki Friday morning “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement to the British news agency.
“The aircraft landed normally, and passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair added.
The 61-year-old passenger suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
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Global News reached out to the airline to independently verify the details but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Local Greek media reported that a piece of the plane flew off and broke a window shortly after takeoff on Friday, causing the cabin oxygen masks to drop and sucking one passenger’s head and shoulders out of the window.
Two airport sources with knowledge of the incident reported the same details to Reuters, it said. The BBC and The Guardian also reported those details. Ryanair told Reuters that it is unclear what caused the broken window.
Passengers also told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, that oxygen masks dropped and that the plane began descending, the Associated Press said.
“Most people had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. We heard a sound, I’d describe it like a tire bursting, … but very loud,” a passenger, identified by the AP as Christina, told Thessaloniki radio.
“We knew straight away we lost pressure because we lost altitude. … Screams, shrieks, shouting,” she added
Unverified videos circulating on social media from inside the plane showed a broken window and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
FlightRadar24 showed a Boeing 737 NG jet en route to Memmingen diverted back to Thessaloniki on Friday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that a window broke on Friday’s flight and said it was ready to support the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) and the NTSB in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. federal agency that investigates aviation accidents and other major transportation incidents, said it was notified that the flight returned due to “a right engine issue and cabin decompression.”
One of the Greek airport sources told Reuters that the aircraft is still on the ground in Thessaloniki while investigators look into the incident.
Flight records show that the aircraft climbed past 15,000 feet about six minutes after departure, then immediately descended to about 6,000 feet before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff, Flightradar24 said.
— with files from Reuters and the Associated Press
QUIT MAKING IT SOUND LIKE HIS UPPER BODY SEPERATED FROM THE TORSO !!! U F/ G ID IO TS !!! DRAMA QUEENS for HEADLINES
Well people demand the cheapest airfares so you get the cheapest airplanes
Once again, another story about a 737 MAX 8. These aircraft should never have been certified. Not only does the engine placement make it unworthy for flight, but it was the brain child of the FORMER CEO. He left in disgrace after forcing the production of this aircraft.
This is what happens when you have an accountant in charge who is only concerned with profit.
This is what happens when you fire Quality Assurance and Engineering staff to save money.
Precisely why I do not fly at all. I will never trust n airplane. I love the experience of flying, not afraid of the flight and understand the mechanics behind flying. But I will not trust an airplane. Nor the airlines who use it.
Thousands of dollars to strap yourself into a seat and fly in some older plane that is falling apart. No thanks. Terrorism is rank. How many of these incidences are reported truthfully? Something fell off the plane and broke the window? Are these planes not checked before every flight to some degree to see if there are any loose parts?? Is that not why thousands are paid to sit in the damned thing? Or is that just to pay CEOS their ransom money?
Would make a great cartoon
At first I thought the shampoo bottle got sucked out the window.
talk about getting head as being sucked off
RYANAIR – “Remember: Your Aircraft Needs All Its Rivets”
MALTA – “Mayday! Air Leaking Through Aircraft”
Unsurprising result