Ryanair passenger partially sucked out of cabin window mid-air
A Ryanair passenger was partially sucked out of a cabin window after the window dislodged mid-air, causing a serious incident.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
A Ryanair passenger was partially sucked out of a cabin window shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki, Greece, in what the airline's chief executive described as a possible engine failure. The 18-year-old Boeing 737 was climbing towards Memmingen in southern Germany when a loud bang was heard and a window shattered. Oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling as a 61-year-old Serbian man, identified by Greek medical authorities, was pulled partway through the broken opening. He was wearing his seatbelt, which prevented him from being ejected entirely.
His wife, Svetlana Gakovich, who was sitting next to him, described how she clung to his legs to pull him back inside. She said he was outside the aircraft for a maximum of two to three minutes. Another passenger helped her. The man is now recovering in hospital.
Video footage shared on social media appears to show a shard of metal thrown from the engine casing into the window. Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said an initial investigation suggested the damage occurred on takeoff and may have been caused by foreign object damage to an engine, but he stressed that could not be confirmed definitively.
The incident echoes a 2018 Southwest Airlines accident in which debris from a catastrophic engine failure broke a window and a woman was partially sucked out; she later died. Analysts note that with more than 100,000 flights daily worldwide, such events are extremely rare. The cause of the Ryanair incident remains under investigation.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | BBC NEWS | BBC One |
|---|---|---|
| The incident may have been caused by foreign object damage to an engine, possibly from a metal shard, and damage may have occurred on takeoff. | ||
| A passenger, still wearing his seatbelt, was partially sucked out of a cabin window after it dislodged mid-air, with Greek reports attributing the window failure to debris from a serious engine failure. | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
This channel provided the most detailed account of the incident, including the passenger's wife's harrowing description of clinging to his legs and the video evidence of a metal shard from the engine. It also drew a direct comparison to the 2018 Southwest Airlines fatality, framing the event as a rare but serious safety concern. The tone was factual and dramatic, focusing on the human experience and the mechanical cause.
- “The wife of a man whose head and shoulders were sucked out of the cabin window of a Ryanair plane Has described how she clung on to her husband's legs to pull him back into the aircraft”
- “He was outside for a maximum of two to three minutes”
- “This video shared on social media suggests a shard of metal was thrown out of the casing and into the window”
This channel focused on the official response from Ryanair's CEO, Michael O'Leary, who attributed the incident to possible foreign object damage to an engine. It provided a brief update on the investigation without the personal account from the passenger's wife or the detailed video evidence. The tone was more corporate and update-oriented, emphasising the airline's preliminary findings.
- “the boss of Ryanair says that an incident on one of its flights which saw a passenger partially sucked out of a plane window may have been caused by foreign object damage to an engine.”
- “Michael O'Leary said that an initial investigation into the incident suggested the damage occurred on takeoff, but that couldn't be confirmed definitively.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.