Investigators have revealed why a Ryanair passenger was partially sucked out of a window mid-flight.
Ljubisa Karovic, 63, had to be held back from falling from the sky by fellow passengers on a flight from Greece to Germany last mohth.
Now, a preliminary report into flight FR1879 by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has revealed the cause of the shocking incident.
On July 10, the window next to Mr Karovic shattered after being struck by an engine part, investigators determined.
As the flight, operated by subsidiary Malta Air, ascended, pilots received warnings of “high vibration” from its right-hand engine.
The NTSB report read: “They reduced the engine power and initiated the ‘Engine High Vibration non-normal checklist’.
“Shortly after, the engine vibration indication was reduced. The crew subsequently continued the climb on autopilot.”
Engine vibrations then increased significantly before a “loud bang” was heard by pilots and the cabin altitude warning began to sound.
“The flight crew donned their oxygen masks, declared an emergency, and began an immediate descent,” the NTSB said.
Mr Karovic was asleep in seat 11F when the engine part hit the adjacent window.
He was then “partially lodged in a damaged cabin window”, around nine minutes and 30 seconds into the flight.
The cause of the damage may have been a bird strike, with investigators confirmingbird remains, including feathers, were recovered from the engine.
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“Other passengers were assisting and managed to pull the injured passenger back into the cabin,” the NTSB report continued.
“The injured passenger was subsequently moved to row 12 and was attended to by a passenger who was a doctor throughout the remainder of the flight.”
After Mr Karovic was safely brought into the plane, another passenger asked flight attendants for something “heavy and metal” to block the broken cabin window.
The passenger then “retrieved a metal box to bring back to row 11”.
Mr Karovic’s wife, Svetlana Grković, would later reveal how she desperately held on to her husband’s leg during the near-death experience.
“I thought to myself: ‘If we die, we die together.’ It was terrifying,” she recalled.
Her husband had serious injuries to his hand and suffered multiple burns across his body from the friction of being pulled through the window, his wife said.
“I had blood all over me, blood was dripping from my face and my hands,” Mr Karovic said.
He has now vowed to not fly again after the terrifying ordeal.
Ryanair has said it will not comment until the investigation concludes.
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