WorldBroken engine parts shattered a window on a Ryanair plane shortly after takeoff in Greece last month, causing a man's head to be sucked through the opening before his fellow passengers pulled him to safety, U.S. investigators said Thursday.U.S. National Transportation Safety Board says it found bird remains inside engineThe Associated Press · Posted: Aug 13, 2026 3:20 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.A Ryanair plane pictured at Marseille Provence Airport in July. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said an investigation into a Ryanair flight last month found an engine fan blade that broke off shortly after takeoff caused a plane window to shatter, causing a passenger's head to be sucked into the hole. (Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images)Broken engine parts shattered a window on a Ryanair plane shortly after takeoff in Greece last month, causing a man's head to be sucked through the opening before his fellow passengers pulled him to safety, U.S. investigators said Thursday.A fan blade in the Boeing 737-800's right engine broke loose, sending fragments through the fuselage, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in its report.The July 10 incident happened after the flight departed the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Investigators found bird remains inside the engine, suggesting the plane may have struck birds during takeoff, though they haven't determined what caused the fan blade to break loose.The 61-year-old man who was nearly sucked out of the plane suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns.Passenger reportedly partially sucked out of dislodged window during Ryanair flight takeoffThe flight attendants told investigators they heard and felt loud, continuous vibration and saw smoke or fog inside the cabin before oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.One of them noticed some passengers standing and calling for help because the man who was sitting in a row 11 window seat was partially lodged in a damaged window. The other passengers managed to pull him back into the cabin.The injured passenger was moved to row 12, where a passenger who was a doctor tended to him. Other passengers got a metal box from the flight attendants, which they used to try to block the broken window until the plane could land.A broken window of a Ryanair aircraft following an emergency landing in Thessaloniki, Greece, on July 10. (Despoina Papapavlou/Reuters)A series of short videos recorded from inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the blown-out window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.Last month, Ryanair said in a statement that the flight "returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged in-flight." International aviation rules allow Greece's Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand over investigations to the NTSB, which they did in this case, with Greece participating.The NTSB reprimanded Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary after he told investors last month that the investigation was focused on foreign object damage and not the plane's age or maintenance history. The safety board said investigators hadn't ruled anything out and O'Leary wasn't authorized to discuss it.Fan blades had undergone inspectionsMaintenance records show the fan blades on the right engine that failed underwent ultrasonic inspections in May 2026 and November 2025, with no damage found. But the NTSB said that four suspected bird strikes to the same engine had been reported by flight crews over the past year. Bird remains were found after two of those suspected strikes.Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and FAA investigator who reviewed the preliminary report, told The Associated Press that the maintenance appears to have been performed at the required intervals. But investigators will likely examine how those inspections were carried out and whether the four previous suspected bird strikes could have contributed to preexisting damage in the engine."We know what happened and even to some extent why it happened, but there's still unanswered questions that the NSTB will get at," Guzzetti said.The Associated Press sent emailed requests for comment on NTSB's findings to Ryanair, Boeing and CFM International, the maker of the engine.There have been at least two previous incidents where parts of an engine made by CFM failed and breached the plane's cabin. In 2018, a woman was killed on a Southwest Airlines flight after she was partially sucked out of a broken window. Another Southwest jet suffered a similar blade-related engine failure over Florida in 2016. The narrow-body plane, which can seat up to 189 passengers, was delivered new to Ryanair in 2008, according to flight-tracking site Flightradar24.Flight to Toronto cancelled over child standing on seat: Porter AirlinesFlight records show the aircraft climbed past 4,570 metres about six minutes after departure and then immediately descended to about 1,830 metres "to burn fuel for 30 minutes" before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after taking off, Flightradar24 said.The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, Europe's largest budget carrier. The plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki, the airline said in a statement at the time.