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Ryanair flight window blast leaves passenger hanging; wife pulls him to safety
A Ryanair Boeing 737‑800 flying from Greece to Memmingen suffered a sudden failure of a right‑engine component a few minutes after take‑off, causing a window to shatter and the cabin to decompress. Passenger Ljubisa Karović was partially pulled outside the aircraft. His wife, Svetlana Grković, grabbed his legs and, with the assistance of two other passengers, hauled him back into the cabin. She later recalled thinking, “If we die, we die together.”
The incident triggered a rapid loss of oxygen, causing oxygen masks to fall and panic among travelers. Karović suffered severe injuries, including burns and shock, and remains hospitalized in Greece. The event is being investigated by the Greek aviation authority HARSIA, with cooperation from Boeing, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the FAA and EASA. The airline’s operator, Malta Air, and other European regulators are reviewing safety procedures following the rare window‑blowout.
Video footage of the decompression and the emergency response circulated widely on social media, highlighting the quick actions that prevented a fatality.