A Serbian man was nearly pulled to his death through a cabin window on a Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, after a window dislodged mid-flight, causing rapid decompression. The incident occurred on 10 July when the aircraft — a Boeing 737-800 operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air, believed to be around 18 years old — was approximately ten minutes into the flight. Tracking data shows the plane abruptly descended around 9,000 feet (2,700 metres) before returning to Thessaloniki.
Ljubisa Karović, 61, was seated by the window when, according to his wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović, a loud bang rang out and within seconds his head and right shoulder were outside the aircraft. "I've never heard anything louder in my life," she told Reuters. "I just turned around and saw that part of his body had already gone out the window." Grabbing his legs immediately, she said she told herself: "If we die, we die together." A fellow passenger helped pull Karović back inside — a process that took up to two minutes. Karović's seatbelt, which he had kept fastened, is credited with preventing him from being fully ejected. When he was brought back inside, his wife described his face as "completely disfigured", with blood pouring from his nose and mouth and his ears and eyes visibly damaged. He is currently hospitalised in Thessaloniki with severe neck and arm injuries, as well as friction burns.
Other passengers described scenes of panic. Fellow traveller Sofia told Radio Thessaloniki: "We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn't breathe." Another passenger, Christina, said she momentarily feared someone had accidentally opened an emergency door. A technical adviser retained by the family believes a failure in the aircraft's right engine caused debris to strike and shatter the cabin window, though this assessment has not been confirmed by investigators.
Because the incident occurred in North Macedonian airspace and involved a US-built aircraft, the investigation is international in scope. The Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority is leading inquiries in Greece, while Boeing, the US Federal Aviation Administration, the US National Transportation Safety Board, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency are all assisting. A Greek prosecutor has also launched a separate legal probe. Ryanair confirmed a window had dislodged but said it would not comment further while formal investigations are under way.
The episode has left lasting psychological scars alongside the physical injuries. Maksimović said she experienced a sudden sense of suffocation simply by entering an elevator the following day, and that the images of the incident will not leave her. "The consequences remain for him and for me," she said. "How we're going to heal and how long that treatment will last, we'll see." Karović himself, she added, begins shaking at any mention of aeroplanes. The couple have hired a lawyer, and their legal adviser described what happened as "extremely serious", saying the results of the investigation would be pivotal.