A man was partially sucked out of a plane window on a flight from Greece to Germany on Friday after the window “detached,” according to a report from Ireland’s RTE. Passengers aboard the Ryanair flight described a loud noise, like a “tire bursting” before decompression of the cabin and masks dropping from the ceiling, the news outlet reports. “There were screams […] for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” one woman told RTE. “The masks dropped, and there was a strong smell; the head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window.” The man was wearing his seatbelt and wasn’t completely sucked out, according to RTE, and other passengers helped pull the man back inside the cabin. The terrifying incident occurred after a piece of debris detached from one of the Boeing 737-800’s engines, a claim that has not been verified by the airline.
The passenger is a tourist from Serbia who was traveling from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, according to France24, and the incident occurred over North Macedonia. The man has not been publicly identified but is reportedly 61 years old and was hospitalized with friction burns, but has been described as in “good condition.”
