Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary said the initial findings of an inquiry into the July 10 incident, in which a passenger was partly sucked out of a window on a Ryanair flight between Greece and Germany, point to the possibility of foreign object damage to the engine. “It looks like a foreign object damage to the engine on takeoff at Thessaloniki, but we can’t say that definitively,” O’Leary told BBC News. He stressed that the 18-year-old Boeing 737 involved had undergone full servicing and an overhaul within the past two years.
The passenger, Serbian national Ljubisa Karović, suffered serious injuries after part of his head and right shoulder were drawn toward the window. His wife, Svetlana Grković Maksimović, told BBC Serbia that she and two other passengers helped pull him back to safety, describing his face as deformed and bloodied. Karović was hospitalized after an emergency landing, and passengers reported hearing some form of blast on board.
The jet was operated by Malta Air, Ryanair’s subsidiary. If investigators confirm that an external object caused the damage, it could influence liability discussions for Ryanair and Boeing. The U.S. NTSB is participating in the investigation, and O’Leary noted a preliminary report would be released in roughly 28 days.
