Ryanair passenger partially sucked out of window on flight from Greece

Ryanair passenger partially sucked out of window on flight from Greece

A 61-year-old man was partially sucked out of a Boeing 737 window on Friday, 10 July 2026, during a flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. The passenger survived the mid-air decompression after his wife and nearby passengers intervened to pull him back into the cabin.

The flight, operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air, suffered a cabin decompression shortly after takeoff. A senior Greek aviation official stated that the aircraft experienced an uncontained failure in the right-hand engine. Debris from the engine reportedly flew out, hit the fuselage, and smashed a passenger window.

A doctor who treated the man on the tarmac reported that the passenger, who was in the window seat, was sucked toward the opening due to the difference in air pressure. According to the doctor, the man's wife grabbed onto his feet for about five minutes, preventing him from being completely ejected from the aircraft.

Other passengers described a scene of panic. A passenger named Christina told Thessaloniki radio that the cabin was filled with screams, shrieks, shouting and that the sound of the failure was like a tire bursting, but very loud. She noted that the man's whole head, neck, shoulders were pulled out of the window before those seated nearby helped pull him back inside.

Following the window failure, oxygen masks deployed in the cabin. Flight records from Flightradar24 indicate the aircraft climbed past 15,000 feet about six minutes after departure before immediately descending to approximately 6,000 feet. The plane remained at that altitude for 30 minutes to burn fuel before returning to Thessaloniki roughly an hour after takeoff.

A Greek hospital official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the passenger was treated for friction burns as well as injuries to his shoulder and neck. The man is currently in the ICU in Greece.

Ryanair confirmed the window dislodged in-flight and that the aircraft landed normally. In a statement, the airline said a replacement aircraft departed Thessaloniki at 9:53 local time on Friday morning to transport the passengers to Memmingen.

The aircraft involved was a Boeing 737-800, a narrow-body plane capable of seating up to 189 passengers, which was delivered new to Ryanair in 2008. Boeing stated it is aware of the incident and is in contact with the airline.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was notified of the cabin decompression and the right engine issue. The NTSB stated that the Republic of North Macedonia will lead the investigation and determine the composition of the investigative team under the provisions of the International Civil Aviation Organization's Annex 13.

Investigators are now working to clarify specific details, including whether the passenger was wearing a seatbelt at the moment the window shattered.

The incident has been compared to a 2018 Southwest Airlines flight where a passenger was killed after an engine explosion shattered a window. That previous event led to FAA-ordered inspections and a Boeing redesign of engine panels.

Greek authorities are currently coordinating with Ryanair's safety department head and the airline's chief pilot in Malta to gather further details.