Passenger's head and shoulders sucked out of window on flight from Greece: reports
By: By Rachel Goodman - Canada's Global News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Passenger's head and shoulders sucked out of window on flight from Greece: reports
Passengers told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, that oxygen masks dropped and that the plane began descending, the Associated Press said.
A passenger on a flight operated by Ryanair subsidiary Malta Air was partially sucked out of a broken window shortly after take-off from Thessaloniki in Greece on Friday, Reuters and the Associated Press reported, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing.
The aircraft was supposed to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen Airport near Munich in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki Friday morning "when a passenger window dislodged inflight," Ryanair said in a statement to the British news agency.
"The aircraft landed normally, and passengers returned to the terminal," Ryanair added.
The 61-year-old passenger suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Global News reached out to the airline to independently verify the details but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Local Greek media reported that a piece of the plane flew off and broke a window shortly after takeoff on Friday, causing the cabin oxygen masks to drop and sucking one passenger's head and shoulders out of the window.
Two airport sources with knowledge of the incident reported the same details to Reuters, it said. The BBC and The Guardian also reported those details. Ryanair told Reuters that it is unclear what caused the broken window.
Passengers also told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, that oxygen masks dropped and that the plane began descending, the Associated Press said.
"Most people had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. We heard a sound, I'd describe it like a tire bursting, … but very loud," a passenger, identified by the AP as Christina, told Thessaloniki radio.
"We knew straight away we lost pressure because we lost altitude. … Screams, shrieks, shouting," she added
Unverified videos circulating on social media from inside the plane showed a broken window and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling.
FlightRadar24 showed a Boeing 737 NG jet en route to Memmingen diverted back to Thessaloniki on Friday morning.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that a window broke on Friday's flight and said it was ready to support the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) and the NTSB in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. federal agency that investigates aviation accidents and other major transportation incidents, said it was notified that the flight returned due to "a right engine issue and cabin decompression."
One of the Greek airport sources told Reuters that the aircraft is still on the ground in Thessaloniki while investigators look into the incident.
Flight records show that the aircraft climbed past 15,000 feet about six minutes after departure, then immediately descended to about 6,000 feet before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff, Flightradar24 said.
— with files from Reuters and the Associated Press
The administrator of this group reserves the right, along with the site moderators, to moderate all and any postings to this group, including the right to enforce the ToS, the CoC, and also including anything that the administrator deems within his sole discretion to be offensive, including and not limited to off topic or 'no value' comments, with the power to delete in exercising those rights.
It would be best, therefore, to be civil in posting on this group.
By now it should be well known that I am unable to open certain sources, videos and pictures. If I cannot, I will ask that they be described and explained. If the poster refuses to comply, their comment will be deleted. Instagrams are banned.
Tags
Who is online
157 visitors
Can you imagine what went through the head of the person partially sucked out the window? Fortunately I never intend to fly again, but if I ever had to, it would NEVER be on a Boeing airplane.
Scientifically speaking he was blown out the windows, not sucked out. High pressure environment to a low pressure environment.
Either way, yeah that would, "suck".
The law professor who taught us the Law of Contracts used to say "You can't suck and blow at the same time."