Wife of man nearly sucked out of Ryanair plane speaks of ordeal
A woman who held her husband’s legs as he was sucked almost headfirst through a Ryanair cabin window on Friday said “half his body was sticking out of the plane”.
Svetlana Grković, who traveled from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, with her husband Ljubisa Karović, told Greek public broadcaster ERT that she was “out there up to her chest” for two minutes.
“I reacted immediately and grabbed his legs. ‘If we die, we die together,’ I thought,” Grković told Serbian news channel Nova.
Grković said that with the help of two other passengers, she was able to pull her husband back inside, who she said had lost consciousness three times.
Grković said that part of the plane’s engine broke, breaking the window next to her husband and causing a loss of pressure in the cabin. Other passengers also reported hearing a sound similar to an explosion.
The family-appointed technical advisor believes the incident began with a failure in the plane’s right engine, which caused debris to hit the cabin window and break apart before a rapid loss of cabin pressure. This assessment has not been verified by researchers.
Passengers had previously told local media that Karović kept his seat belt on, helping those on board hold him down while his head and shoulders were sticking out.
Svetlana Grković said her 61-year-old husband was “seriously injured and in shock.”
“It is important for me that he is alive… especially his hand is seriously injured and has burns. He cannot communicate, he does not remember the whole incident,” he said.
Tracking data shows the Ryanair plane remained airborne for about 10 minutes and suddenly dropped to 2,700 meters (9,000 ft).
Ryanair said in a statement that its flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning was turned back “soon after take-off due to the passenger window becoming dislodged in flight”.
The Irish budget airline said: “The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical attention on the ground in Thessaloniki.” he said.
