Wife of Ryanair passenger describes holding him as he hung out of window

A Serbian woman described clinging to her husband’s legs as he was partially sucked out of a Ryanair plane window mid-flight, recounting the moment she vowed, “If we die, we die together,” in a harrowing account of the incident that left the 61-year-old man seriously injured and the aircraft’s crew scrambling to stabilize the situation.

The ordeal unfolded on Friday, July 10, 2026, aboard Ryanair flight FR1879, operated by the airline’s subsidiary Malta Air, which was en route from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. According to Svetlana Grković, the husband’s wife, a loud bang—described by passengers as resembling a tire bursting—shattered the acrylic window beside her husband, Ljubisa Karović, as the Boeing 737-800 climbed to 20,000ft. “It was as if a part of the engine broke off and hit the window where my husband was sitting,” Grković told Serbian outlet Nova. “Luckily, he was strapped in, but half of his body was sticking out of the plane.”

Grković immediately grabbed her husband’s legs, preventing him from being fully ejected as the cabin decompressed. “I thought: ‘If we die, we die together,’” she said. For two minutes, she and two other passengers held him as the aircraft’s slipstream pulled him outward, his head and shoulders exposed. “His entire face was deformed and blood was pouring from his nose and mouth,” she later told BBC Serbia, describing the scene as “horrible.”

Passengers reported chaos as oxygen masks deployed and screams echoed through the cabin. One traveler, Christina, told Radio Thessaloniki that the decompression felt “like we couldn’t breathe,” while another, Sofia, recalled fearing the plane was “going down.” Karović, who had kept his seatbelt fastened, lost consciousness multiple times due to oxygen deprivation and shock, according to Grković. He remains hospitalized in Thessaloniki with severe burns, a damaged hand, and traumatic injuries, unable to communicate or recall the event.

The flight, which had been airborne for about 10 minutes, abruptly dropped 9,000ft before the pilot initiated an emergency return to Thessaloniki. Grković credited an unnamed Albanian passenger with helping her stabilize her husband, saying, “That man helped me a lot, me and Ljubiša.” She expressed a desire to personally thank him, though she admitted she “doesn’t even know if he told me” his name.

Ryanair confirmed the incident in a statement, noting the “passenger window dislodged in flight” and that the aircraft “landed normally.” The airline arranged a replacement plane to transport remaining passengers to Memmingen, which departed Thessaloniki at 9:53 a.m. local time. A pregnant woman on board was also hospitalized but later discharged, according to Greek media.

Investigations into the cause are ongoing, with authorities from Greece and the European Union involved. Greek media speculated that a piece of the engine had detached, striking the window, while the European Union Aviation Safety Agency is reviewing the incident. The flight’s Boeing 737-800 is under scrutiny for potential mechanical failures, though Ryanair has not yet attributed the cause.

Grković, who described her husband’s injuries as “serious,” also shared her own trauma. “Whenever he hears about aeroplanes he starts shaking,” she said. “I am also in a very bad psychological state… I feared for our lives.” She added that she and her husband now question whether they will ever fly again, haunted by the memory of the “terrible” ordeal.

The incident has reignited debates over aviation safety, particularly following a 2024 incident in the U.S. where a cabin panel on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 blew out mid-flight. In that case, Boeing later redesigned fan cowl structures on similar aircraft. Investigators are now examining whether similar vulnerabilities exist in the Ryanair plane’s engine components.