US to probe Ryanair 'detached' window incident

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will lead the investigation into an incident in ⁠which a passenger was partly sucked out of a Ryanair Boeing 737's broken window over Greece last week.

The NTSB said Greece had delegated the lead role to the agency in the probe.

A piece of engine broke off the Boeing 737 NG and smashed the window shortly after take off from Thessaloniki in Greece on 10 July, according to video and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The plane, bound for Germany, lost pressure and made an emergency ‌landing.

The man, 61-year-old Serbian national Ljubisa Karovic, was held by fellow passengers as he was pulled out of the window. He was injured and hospitalised.

Similar incidents

The event had similarities to problems on two prior Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 NG flights in 2016 and 2018. In the latter, a passenger died after being partially sucked out of a ‌window damaged by a broken fan blade.

But FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters in an interview: "I don't think the ⁠early indications are that [the recent Ryanair problem] mimics what the Southwest incident was."

After ‌the Southwest Airlines incident, the NTSB called on Boeing to redesign the ⁠fan cowl ‌structure on 737 NG planes, and the FAA issued an airworthiness directive in 2023 to be completed by 2028.

Mr Bedford said the ongoing investigation is prompting a full reevaluation of the FAA response to ⁠the 2018 incident. "Did we miss something? Way too early to tell - but we can't take ⁠it off the board yet," Mr Bedford said.

Southwest Airlines said yesterday it has completed the work on approximately 80% of its affected planes and was ahead of schedule to meet the FAA's July 2028 deadline.

Ryanair uses CFM56 engines from manufacturer CFM International on all of its Boeing 737 NG models. The NG is the737 ‌version that preceded the current MAX generation.

'Chaos broke out'

In the aftermath of the incident, the wife of a Mr Karovic described how "chaos broke out".

Svetlana Maksimovic said her husband was wearing his seatbelt, which prevented him from being completely ejected, while she and two other passengers managed to pull him back into the cabin as oxygen masks were deployed and panic spread among those on board the flight.

She said: "At that exact moment, he [her husband] was pulled out through the window. He was outside for a maximum of two to three minutes.

"The lady sitting next to me and I tried to put him back inside. A strong wind had pulled him out, but luckily he was wearing his seatbelt, so he didn't fall off the seat.

"Then a man came to help us. I think he told us he was from Albania, but I'm not sure."