For nervous flyers, it sounds like the stuff of nightmares; for most, only contemplated in an action movie. But last week, a passenger really was nearly sucked out through a broken aircraft window mid-flight.Ljubisa Karović was on a Ryanair-Air Malta flight leaving Thessaloniki in Greece when the adjacent window blew out of the Boeing 737-800, pulling his head and shoulders out of the plane. His wife and fellow passengers helped to keep him inside.How did this happen – and could it recur?What caused the window to blow out?Investigators have not confirmed the details, but according to passenger reports the window broke after being struck by debris following failure of the right engine at about 16,000ft. Ryanair said the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged inflight”. The incident took place over North Macedonia, where authorities said the plane had turned around “due to a right engine issue and cabin decompression”Why was he not sucked out completely?Passengers told reporters that Karović had his seatbelt on which would have helped enormously. But other factors contributed. Airliners have small windows and an adult body could physically block the hole when a window blows. The most severe suction is also relatively short-lived. “The airflow is sudden and will stop once the pressure inside the cabin is same as the pressure outside,” said Dr Jason Knight, senior lecturer in fluid mechanics at the University of Portsmouth.How common is this kind of incident?It is extremely rare – but unfortunately not unprecedented. The last known time a passenger was partially sucked out of a broken window – or technically, blown out, with the relative force of the cabin pressure – was in 2018 on a Southwest Airlines flight travelling from New York to Dallas. Despite being hauled back into the plane by other passengers, Jennifer Riordan died.Although the exact details of last week’s Ryanair incident remain unconfirmed, early reports suggest that parts of a damaged engine broke the window. Footage posted online appears to show a missing fan blade. The fatal Southwest incident occurred on a similar Boeing 737 model with jet engines made by CFM, where a fan blade broke off and shattered the window.An entire door panel blew out of a Boeing 737-Max in an Alaska Air flight in 2024, but luckily the adjacent seats were unoccupied.Otherwise, pilots have come the closest to being sucked out of modern planes through shattered cockpit windshields.Woman speaks out on husband being pulled from Ryanair plane – videoIs surviving such an incident a miracle? In recent events, most appear to have survived. Karović is being treated for injuries and trauma in hospital. His wife said he had been bleeding from the nose and mouth, had a badly damaged hand and suffered friction burns in the ordeal.