A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen turned back shortly after take-off on Friday morning after a passenger window dislodged in mid-air. The aircraft landed normally in Thessaloniki, and one passenger received medical assistance on the ground.
The return came after a flight that passengers say lurched from noise to fear in seconds. Witnesses told local media that a man was left hanging head first out of the window as far as his shoulders for several minutes before other passengers pulled him back inside. Christina, who was on board, said she immediately realised there had been a decompression and thought for a moment that someone had opened the emergency door by mistake.
What made the incident so unsettling was not only the sudden turn-back but the uncertainty over what actually hit the aircraft. Ryanair said only that a window had dislodged inflight. Passengers, meanwhile, believed the window was smashed by pieces of the jet's engine, and reports in Greece and Germany said they heard a loud bang before the break and saw oxygen masks drop from the ceiling soon after the Boeing 737 had taken off. Christina said the masks fell, there was a strong smell, and the passenger at the window still had his seat belt fastened.
The aircraft was believed to have been an 18 year-old-plane operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air, and the Irish Aviation Authority said it was aware of the incident involving a Ryanair group aircraft registered and operated by Malta Air departing Thessaloniki that morning. It said it would provide any requested assistance to the aviation safety investigation in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate. For the passengers, though, the immediate question was simpler: how a routine morning flight turned into an in-air emergency that sent everyone back to the terminal before a replacement aircraft was arranged several hours later to continue to Memmingen.
