Moments of sheer terror unfolded on a Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, Germany, when a passenger nearly was sucked out of the aircraft after a window came loose during the flight.

According to passenger accounts, the 61-year-old Serbian national found himself with his head and shoulders outside the fuselage, while his wife and other passengers held him back until they managed to pull him back inside the aircraft.

Panic broke out a few minutes after takeoff
. The flight had departed on Friday morning from Thessaloniki bound for southern Germany. According to flight tracking data, about ten minutes after takeoff, the Boeing suddenly lost approximately 9,000 feet in altitude following a sudden cabin depressurization.

Passengers told local media that they heard a loud bang, and immediately afterward the oxygen masks dropped and panic ensued.

“We realized immediately that there had been a decompression. There were screams, and for a moment I thought an emergency door had opened,” a fellow passenger described.

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“His head and shoulders were outside the plane.”
According to eyewitnesses, the man sitting by the window was violently pulled toward the opening that had formed, causing his head and shoulders to end up outside the aircraft.

COLD TERROR MID-AIR: Piece of engine shatters Ryanair window, passenger partially sucked out!

A holiday flight turned into an absolute living nightmare today (July 10, 2026) when Ryanair flight FR1879 from Greece to Germany suffered a catastrophic mid-air mechanical failure… pic.twitter.com/2WJNS5IQVy

— உடனுக்குடன் | Udanukudan (@Udanukudan) July 10, 2026

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“Fortunately, he hadn’t unbuckled his seatbelt,” said a passenger, adding that his wife held onto his legs for about five minutes until other passengers rushed to pull him back into the cabin.

Another passenger described how the decompression was so severe that passengers had difficulty breathing, while the injured man was bleeding and lost consciousness several times, most likely due to oxygen deprivation and shock.

The damaged engine

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A video shows the damaged engine of Ryanair’s Boeing 737, from which metal debris was ejected, shattering a cockpit window, just minutes after takeoff from Thessaloniki en route to Munich, Germany. The metal debris struck the fuselage and shattered the window next to the passengers’ seats, causing a sudden loss of cabin pressure.

The 61-year-old is being treated for friction
burns. The president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, Michalis Giannakos, stated that the 61-year-old Serbian man is being treated for friction burns and is in a state of shock, though he remains fully conscious.

Ryanair’s
Statement Ryanair confirmed that the flight returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff, as a passenger window detached during the flight.

The company reported that the aircraft landed without incident, the passengers returned to the terminal, and one passenger received medical attention after landing. Meanwhile, another aircraft was made available, which transported the passengers to their final destination a few hours later.

The causes
are under investigation. According to passengers, the window may have been struck by engine debris, though Ryanair has not confirmed this possibility.

The aircraft, approximately 18 years old, was operating the flight on behalf of Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair.

Fraport Greece announced that the incident is being investigated by the Hellenic Air and Railway Accident Investigation Authority, with all relevant parties cooperating to clarify the circumstances of the incident.

The seatbelt prevented the worst
from happening. Former airline pilot Chris Brady estimated that the outcome could have been much more serious if the passenger had not been wearing.

As he noted, the recommendation that passengers keep their seatbelts fastened even after the seatbelt sign goes off is intended precisely for cases of sudden turbulence or unforeseen incidents, such as the one that occurred on the flight from Thessaloniki to Germany.