A passenger who was partially sucked out of a window while flying at 20,000 feet said that “the noise before the chaos” was all he can remember from the ordeal.
Ljubisa Karovic, 61, suffered neck and shoulder injuries after the window broke during the Ryanair flight from the Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen near Munich, Germany, on July 10.
Speaking to The Guardian, the Serbian businessman said: “The explosion is what I remember. It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.”
Rescue by fellow passengers
Fellow passengers held on to Mr Karovic and pulled him back in, and he remembers very little of the incident.
“I am lucky,” he said. “My head and neck still hurt, but I am alive.
“It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it is fate. I believe in God and I thank him every day.”
Injuries and aftermath
He is facing having to wear a neck brace for at least six weeks and has been told he could face surgery, and is currently staying in a rented villa near Thessaloniki.
Mr Karovic’s wife Svetlana, who was seated behind her husband, said they were “eternally grateful” to one passenger who she believes is Albanian for his part in the rescue.
She told The Guardian: “He did all he could to bring him in and then tried to block the window, first with a bag that was immediately sucked out and then with a suitcase, which worked.”
Ryanair statement and investigation
In a statement at the time, Ryanair said the plane “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged in-flight”.
They said that the plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal, and one passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US said on July 16 it was taking over an investigation into the flight.
The incident occurred in Greek airspace and international aviation rules allow Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand the investigation over to the NTSB.
