The incident that occurred on board a Ryanair flight, during which a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window, could have been caused by the impact of a foreign object on the plane’s engine.
• Also read: A window comes loose shortly after takeoff: a man almost gets sucked out of a plane in Greece
• Also read: Passenger sucked in through his broken window: “There were three of us pulling him in,” recounts his traumatized wife
The airline’s director, Michael O’Leary, indicated that an initial investigation suggests that “the engine suffered damage caused by a foreign object during takeoff, but we cannot say with certainty”, according to BBC information.
(ARCHIVE) A Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS plane lands at Barcelona’s El Prat Airport on July 1, 2022.
AFP
The event took place on July 10, departing from Thessaloniki, Greece. The plane was an 18-year-old Boeing 737, which had undergone extensive maintenance and overhaul over the past two years, the British media outlet reported. It had been delivered to Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair.
Ljubisa Karović, the Serbian tourist involved in the incident, had been hospitalized in Thessaloniki with friction burns, AFP said. His life is not in danger.
The passenger’s wife, Svetlana Grković Maksimović, also spoke to the BBC a few days after the event.
Serbian Ljubisa Karović, 61, was half sucked out of his window after an incident on a Ryanair flight on July 10, 2026 between Greece and Germany. In the photo, taken during their trip, he poses with his wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović.
Screenshot taken from Facebook
“What is important to me is that he is alive… His hand is particularly badly injured, and he is suffering from burns [et de blessures au cou et aux épaules]. He cannot communicate and does not remember the event as a whole,” she said.
A preliminary report from the US National Transportation Safety Board is expected to be released within the next 28 days, according to Michael O’Leary.
