The first statements by the 61-year-old Serbian, Ljubiša Karović, who was injured during a flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, Germany, when the airplane window shattered, causing half of his body to hang outside the cabin.

The incident occurred on Friday morning (July 10). A few minutes after takeoff, according to witnesses, a deafening noise was heard when a piece of the engine broke off and struck the window next to The 61-year-old Serbian man was seated there. The impact shattered the window, and the sudden decompression caused the passenger to be sucked toward the opening, with his head and shoulders protruding from the fuselage at an altitude of approximately 20,000 feet. His wife, along with other passengers, held him back until they managed to pull him back inside the aircraft.

“I had blood everywhere—on my face and hands.”

Almost two weeks later, in an interview with the German newspaper Bild, Ljubiša Karović described the dramatic moments he experienced: “I fell asleep. After a while, I was awakened by a very loud noise that sounded like a bomb explosion. I was conscious for only a moment, and I can’t remember the rest. When I came to, there was blood everywhere; it was dripping from my face and hands. As soon as I close my eyes, images of what I went through in those minutes come flooding back. It’s a nightmare that I can’t put into words.”

As a result of the incident, he suffered burns on part of his right hand and on his back. In addition, the right side of his body was temporarily paralyzed, while his right ear and right eye sustained partial damage. As he reports, he couldn’t feel anything for a short while.

“It’s completely turned my life upside down.”

Before this incident, the 61-year-old lived life to the fullest; he was energetic and loved to travel by plane. However, everything has changed now. “Now everything bothers me. The commotion and the noise bother me; I can’t walk down the street—everything bothers me. Psychologically, I’ve hit rock bottom. This is affecting both my work and my family. What will happen now? Everything depends on me; I was the ‘driving force’ behind everything in the family. It’s a complete upheaval in my life. I can’t concentrate at all. My attention can’t focus on anything. That means I’m simply not functioning properly.”

As he emphasized, “I wouldn’t even think of getting on another flight. Every time I hear a plane, I get anxious and my temperature spikes. I’m not doing well at all.”

It’s unclear whether he’ll ever be able to live a normal life again. It is not yet clear whether he will need to undergo surgery or continue wearing the neck brace for an extended period.

“I grabbed him by the legs,” his wife had said

A few days ago, his wife, Svetlana Grkovic, who, along with other passengers, saved him from certain death.

“It was as if a piece of the engine had broken off and hit the window next to where Ljubiša was sitting. I reacted immediately and grabbed him by the legs. I thought: ‘If we’re going to die, we’ll die together.’ It was horrific,” she said.

For about five minutes, she held on to her husband with all her strength, until other passengers rushed to help and managed to pull him back into the cabin, while the oxygen masks had already dropped.

Svetlana recalls that a man and a woman immediately ran over to her. “They came to help me. I remember a man and a woman. He helped us a great deal—both me and Lyubisha,” she said, expressing her desire to meet him again to thank him in person.

SOURCE: Proto Thema