By Renee Maltezou, David Shepardson and Padraic Halpin
ATHENS/WASHINGTON, July 10 (Reuters) – A passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair Boeing 737 flight shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in Greece on Friday, two airport sources said, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.
The plane was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement. It is unclear what led to the broken window.
The Serbian national who was partially sucked through the window was transferred to the AHEPA University General Hospital in Thessaloniki but did not face life-threatening injuries, the Serbian consulate said, adding that doctors were determining the extent of the injuries.
Serbian media quoted a passenger telling Radio Thessaloniki that the man’s head and shoulders were outside the aircraft before fellow passengers pulled him back in.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed the plane was a Boeing 737 NG – the version before the current MAX generation of 737 planes. Boeing did not immediately comment.
Ryanair did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on details of the incident, as well as for confirmation on the make of the plane and the engine.
“The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair said in its statement.
Local media in Greece reported that a piece of engine broke off and smashed a window early in the flight, causing the cabin to decompress. The two airport sources with knowledge of the incident relayed the same details to Reuters.
A video posted on social media appeared to show an uncontained engine failure on the damaged Boeing 737, with fan blades missing. Such a failure occurs when internal components like fan blades shatter and breach the casing, sending debris flying.
FlightRadar24 showed a Boeing 737 NG jet en route to Memmingen diverted back to Thessaloniki on Friday morning.
The same plane had diverted back to Thessaloniki on a flight to Sarajevo on Thursday evening, also shortly after takeoff, according to the data and a source, although it is unclear why.
The FAA confirmed that a window broke on Friday’s flight, and said it was ready to support the investigation. Serbian state TV also showed the interior of the aircraft and the broken window.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would assist North Macedonia, over which the incident occurred, in its investigation.
Ryanair uses CFM56 engines from manufacturer CFM International on all of its Boeing 737 NG models. CFM, a joint venture between General Electric Co and France’s Safran SA. did not comment.
PRECEDENT IN 2018
Unverified videos posted on social media from the inside of the plane showed a broken window and oxygen masks dangling from the ceiling.
One of the Greek airport sources said that the aircraft is still on the ground in Thessaloniki and investigators are looking into the incident.
A similar incident occurred in 2018 on another Boeing 737 NG. A fan blade in the engine of a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 NG broke and caused a broken window that partially sucked out a passenger who was killed. The 43-year-old was the first person killed in a U.S. passenger airline accident in nine years.
After that incident, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board called on Boeing to redesign the fan cowl structure on 737 NG planes. There had been an engine failure on another Southwest 737 NG in 2016.
The FAA issued a directive in 2023 requiring the Boeing redesign by July 2028.
Tammie Jo Shults, who won accolades for her cool demeanor while flying that Southwest flight, said on Friday she was surprised and struck by some of the similarities.
“They have an engine that goes out. There is external damage. It’s not just an engine that has quit working and so there’s more drag with that,” she said in an interview.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou, David Shepardson, Allison Lampert, Michele Kambas, Padraic Halpin, Ivana Sekularac, Conor Humphries, Tim Hepher and Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Edward McAllister, Susan Fenton and Sanjeev Miglani)
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