Passenger Nearly Pulled From Window on Ryanair‑Owned Flight in Mid‑Air

Sun Sep 06 2026 05:24:52 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

A passenger was left hanging head‑first from a cabin window on a Malta Air flight before crew quickly pulled him in, authorities say.

On a Mayair‑owned Boeing 737, a Serbian passenger in his 60s was nearly sucked out of a cabin window during a flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen. Witnesses described a loud bang and a broken window, after which the passenger hung head‑first from the doorway for minutes. Crew and other passengers pulled him back inside before the aircraft returned to Greece. Ryanair confirmed the aircraft landed normally, indicating no safety concerns beyond the incident. The Irish Aviation Authority is coordinating an investigation with Greek and Maltese aviation regulators.

A passenger was reported nearly sucked out of a cabin window in mid‑air on a Ryanair‑owned plane.

Witnesses told local media that the man—identified as a Serbian citizen in his 60s—was left hanging head‑first out of the window, as far as his shoulders, for several minutes before other passengers on the Malta Air flight managed to pull him back inside.

Ryanair’s statement said the Friday morning flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen returned shortly after take‑off when a passenger window dislodged in flight. The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal, with one passenger receiving medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.

Passengers described a loud bang followed by the window breaking and oxygen masks falling from the ceiling shortly after the Boeing 737 had taken off. They believe the window was smashed by fragments of the jet's engine, although Ryanair has not commented on this theory.

"We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams… I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," a fellow passenger, Christina, told Radio Thessaloniki. "The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn't taken off his seat belt," she added.

The aircraft, believed to be an 18‑year‑old, was operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air. The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) later told the BBC that it “is aware of the incident involving a Ryanair group aircraft, registered and operated by Malta Air, departing Thessaloniki this morning,” and offered assistance to the aviation safety investigation authorities in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate.

In 2018, a passenger died when debris from a damaged engine caused a window to break on a Southwest Airlines flight in the US, and she was partially sucked out.