America’s National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday it will lead the investigation into an incident in which a passenger was partly sucked out of a Ryanair Boeing 737’s broken window over Greece last week.
A piece of engine broke off the Boeing 737 NG and smashed the windowshortly after takeofffrom Thessaloniki in Greece on July 10, according to video and the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and made an emergency landing.
Fellow passengers held on to Serbian national Ljubisa Karovic as he was pulled out the window. He was injured and hospitalised.
Video footage shot by passengers on board the aircraft showed the remnants of a shattered window on the right hand side of the cabin with oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling – testimony to the rapid depressurisation of the 18-year-old Boeing 737 aircraft shortly after it took off at 6.01am local time.
The plane was flying at 15,000ft when passengers said they heard a loud bang before the aircraft started to descend, spending 30 minutes burning fuel before it landed safely at Thessaloniki Airport.
