Ryanair Passenger Sucked Toward Broken Window After Midair Engine Failure
A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen faced a terrifying ordeal when debris from an engine failure shattered a window, partially sucking out a passenger. The pilots safely returned to Thessaloniki, where the injured traveler received medical care while others were rerouted on a replacement aircraft. This dramatic incident highlights the rare but severe risks of uncontained engine failures in commercial aviation.
While undoubtedly an alarming incident, it is important to remember that incidents such as these are few and far between.
- clickety_clack
Well, this isn’t very typical, I’d like to make that point.
Look, the windows not supposed to fall off, for a start. These things are built to rigorous aeronautical engineering standards — cardboard’s out, cardboard derivatives, no cellotape, no string. So chance in a million, really.
And to be clear, the plane that the window fell off was flown to safety. So there’s nothing out there but birds, air, wind and clouds… and the window that fell off.
- skrebbel
> A report in a Hungarian publication claims, "A passenger was sucked into the window by the change in air pressure, with the 61-year-old man's head sticking out of the plane. Witnesses say his wife grabbed him, which was the reason he wasn't pulled out of the plane by the lower air pressure outside." [translation by Google]
Points for the wife!
(from https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/672872-ryanair-...)
- consumer451
Lesson learned for Ryanair leadership: charge more for seats not in range of debris from uncontained turbine failures.
Seriously though, as an aviation geek, I always avoid those seats when given a choice.
- rediguanayum
Good photo of the broken window in Aviation Herald: https://avherald.com/h?article=53ba2a01&opt=0
More discussion in: Airliners.net: https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1510797&...
- flutas
Extremely similar to Southwest flight 1380 which killed a person in the US after they were partially sucked out of a broken window from an engine failure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380