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The wife of a Ryanair passenger who was partially pulled through a dislodged cabin window has described how fellow travelers held on to her husband and managed to bring him back inside the aircraft as it began descending.
Ljubisa Karovic, 61, suffered severe injuries to his neck and right arm during the July 10 flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Germany. He remains hospitalized at AHEPA hospital in Thessaloniki.
Svetlana Maksimovic said she and her husband had just settled into the flight when an exceptionally loud bang cut through the sound of the engines.
“I’ve never heard anything louder in my life before. I just then turned around and saw that part of his body had already gone out the window,” she told Reuters.
Karovic, who had been sitting by the window and may have fallen asleep, was pulled partly outside after the window came loose. His head and right arm were hanging out of the aircraft, according to his wife.
A woman sitting next to Karovic initially held on to his left arm. Another passenger then stepped in, allowing them to pull him back into the cabin while the plane started to descend.
Maksimovic left her seat to help her husband and placed an oxygen mask over his face, while another passenger handed her a mask of her own.
Greek media and airport sources said a piece of the engine may have broken off and struck the window shortly after takeoff, leading to cabin decompression, a rapid loss of air pressure inside the aircraft.
Boeing said it was assisting an investigation led by North Macedonia, where the incident occurred. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency are also involved.
A Greek prosecutor has opened a separate inquiry, while Greek air accident investigators are examining the aircraft, which remains in Greece.
Ryanair confirmed that a window became dislodged during the flight but said it would not comment further while the formal investigation continues.
Maksimovic said her husband was covered in blood and had sustained extensive injuries to his face, ears, eyes and nose when he was brought back inside.
The couple has hired a lawyer as they wait for investigators to determine what caused the incident.
“What happened was extremely serious,” their legal adviser, Vassilis Tsiaras, said, adding that the findings of the investigation would be crucial.
Maksimovic said both she and her husband continued to struggle with the aftermath.
“The consequences remain for him and for me,” she said. “How we’re going to heal and how long that treatment will last and in what way, we’ll see.”
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