A passenger aboard a Ryanair flight from Greece reportedly came perilously close to being sucked out of a window after it shattered in mid-air. The incident, which occurred during a journey from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, saw the man lifted from his seat and left hanging headfirst out of the plane’s slipstream.
Local reports indicate that an engine failure was responsible for the terrifying event, with parts from the engine smashing the acrylic window. The flight in question was Ryanair flight FR1879, operated by the budget airline’s subsidiary, Malta Air, and was scheduled for Thursday.
Michalis Giannakos, a trade union official, confirmed to the Greek news website Newsit that the passenger was hospitalized, suffering from shock and friction burns caused by the freezing wind outside the aircraft. The president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees described the near-catastrophe as “almost a tragedy.”
Images and videos circulating online show the dramatic aftermath of the shattered window, which resulted in the cabin depressurizing and oxygen masks deploying from the ceiling. Flight tracking data from FlightRadar24 revealed that the aircraft was airborne for just over an hour, reaching an altitude of 16,000 feet before making an emergency descent back to Thessaloniki airport.
A Ryanair spokesperson addressed the incident, stating that the flight returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff on Friday morning when a passenger window dislodged inflight. The spokesperson confirmed that the aircraft landed normally and passengers were returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground. To minimize delays, a replacement aircraft was arranged, departing Thessaloniki at 9:53 am local time to continue the journey to Memmingen.
This incident echoes a similar event in 2024, when a cabin panel on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight. That plane, carrying over 170 passengers and six crew, was forced to make an emergency landing. One passenger recounted seeing a boy’s shirt ripped off and sucked out of the plane while his mother held onto him, with two seats directly next to the gaping hole in the fuselage fortunately unoccupied.
In testimony to investigators, a co-pilot of the Alaska Airlines flight described the scene as “chaos,” with the blowout occurring as the plane traveled at 400mph, ripping off the cockpit door and tearing off his headset. Seven passengers and one flight attendant sustained minor injuries. The final report into that incident, released last year, confirmed that four door bolts which secured the door plug had been removed for rivet work when the jet was being built. However, when the door plug was put back in, the bolts were not reinstalled.
