A Serbian woman has described the terrifying moment she clung to her husband's legs as he was partially sucked out of a Ryanair aircraft window at altitude, fearing the two of them would die together before fellow passengers rushed to help drag him back inside. The incident occurred on a flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, last Friday, and forced the Boeing 737 to make an emergency return to Thessaloniki.

Husband's Head and Shoulders Outside the Aircraft

Svetlana Grković and her husband Ljubiša Karović were dozing in their seats when the window beside them suddenly shattered, triggering rapid cabin decompression and sending oxygen masks dropping from the overhead panels. Grković said the force of the decompression pulled her husband so violently that his head and shoulders were outside the aircraft before she could react.

"As the window broke, decompression occurred in the cabin. The pressure pulled Ljubiša — luckily he was strapped in — but half of his body was sticking out of the plane. I immediately reacted and grabbed his legs," she said in her first public account of the emergency.

"I thought: 'If we die, we die together'. It was horrible."

Grković said she was quickly joined by at least two other passengers — a man and a woman — who helped hold her husband's legs while the aircraft turned back toward Thessaloniki. She particularly singled out a man she believed was Albanian, whose name she never caught, and said she hopes to find him one day to thank him in person.

Suspected Engine Failure Caused Window Breach

Reports indicate a piece of the aircraft's engine broke away early in the flight and struck the window next to where Karović was seated. Sources with knowledge of the incident relayed consistent details about what appears to have been an uncontained engine failure — a serious aviation event in which internal components such as fan blades shatter and breach the engine casing, sending high-velocity debris outward.

Video footage circulated on social media appeared to show the damaged Boeing 737 with fan blades missing from one engine, consistent with an uncontained failure. Ryanair confirmed the aircraft involved was a Boeing 737 NG operated by its Malta Air subsidiary, and that "a passenger window dislodged in flight." The airline said the plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal, but has not publicly stated a cause.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has launched an investigation into the incident.

Husband Hospitalised with Serious Injuries

Karović was taken to hospital by ambulance after the aircraft landed back in Thessaloniki. Grković said her husband lost consciousness multiple times during the ordeal and remained in a serious condition.

"He's seriously injured and in shock. His hand is particularly badly injured, and he's got burns. He's not able to communicate; he doesn't remember the whole event," she said.

For Grković, the most important thing was that he survived. "It's important to me that he's alive," she said.

Echoes of a Deadly 2018 Incident

The incident draws comparisons to a near-identical emergency in 2018 involving another Boeing 737 NG, when a fan blade failure on a Southwest Airlines flight in the United States shattered a window and partially sucked out a passenger, who later died from their injuries. In the wake of that disaster, the US National Transportation Safety Board directed Boeing to redesign the fan cowl structure on the 737 NG — the generation of aircraft that preceded the 737 MAX.

Aviation emergencies of this nature, while rare, underscore the ongoing scrutiny facing ageing aircraft platforms. For more on dramatic mid-air emergencies, read our coverage of an Argentine flight instructor who abandoned a student mid-lesson, and a witness account of a light plane plunging into the ocean off Adelaide.

Investigations into the Thessaloniki incident are continuing.