Passengers on a Ryanair flight that made an emergency landing in Thessaloniki after the cabin was depressurized have told Greek media about their experiences during the incident, in which a 61-year-old passenger was partially sucked through a damaged window, BTA reported.
According to eyewitness accounts, a loud bang was heard about an hour after the start of the early morning flight, after which the oxygen masks were automatically activated and the plane began a sharp descent, reports the newspaper "Kathimerini".
A passenger, who identified herself only as Christina, told Thessaloniki radio station Rthess.gr, said that most people were asleep when a sudden noise was heard, which she likened to "a tire bursting, but much louder". According to her, it became clear almost immediately that decompression had occurred, and panic broke out in the cabin.
"There was shouting and screaming. At first I thought someone had opened an emergency exit, but then we realized that the problem was in one of the windows," she said.
According to Christina, the passenger sitting next to the damaged window was sucked out up to his shoulders.
"His head, neck and shoulders were outside the plane," she said, adding that people in the adjacent seats managed to pull him back into the cabin. According to her, the seat belt prevented more serious consequences.
Another passenger also described the incident as "extreme decompression" and claims that the victim's shoulder was pulled out of the plane.
Witnesses also say that immediately after the depressurization, the pilot made an emergency descent and returned the plane to Thessaloniki. After the situation stabilized, doctors traveling on board provided first aid to the victim, who remained conscious until landing.
According to information from a hospital employee in Thessaloniki, quoted by the Greek media, the 61-year-old man with Serbian citizenship suffered neck and shoulder injuries, as well as friction burns. The plane landed safely in Thessaloniki, and the causes of the incident are still being investigated.
The media in North Macedonia reported in detail about the incident and published photos from the online platform for monitoring aircraft flights in real time Fly Radar, according to which the plane entered the country's airspace, where it made a U-turn, to return.
According to local reports, a Ryanair (Malta Air) 737-800 aircraft, registration 9H-QEU, was climbing to 15,000 feet approximately six minutes after takeoff from Thessaloniki when it apparently suffered a failure in the second (right) engine. As a result of debris hitting the fuselage, one of the aircraft's cabin windows broke.