Passenger Nearly Sucked Out of Plane—Now He Talks About His Trauma

Here's what it's all about

• On July 10, a cabin window on a Ryanair plane suddenly shattered.
• A man is nearly sucked out of the car. He owes his life to his seat belt and the other passengers.
• Now, for the first time, the injured passenger is recounting his experience.
• According to Ryanair, a piece of debris from an engine damaged the window.

Summary created with

Following the dramatic incident aboard a Ryanair flight from Greece to Germany, the injured passenger has spoken out publicly for the first time. A few days after being discharged from the hospital, Serbian entrepreneur Ljubisa Karović is recovering in Katerini, Greece. “I was lucky. I don’t remember much; my head and neck still hurt. But I’m alive. Maybe it was the seatbelt, maybe it was fate,” Karović told the British newspaper "The Guardian". According to the report, the 61-year-old is wearing a neck brace, and his right arm still shows visible burns and bruises.

The incident occurred on July 10 on Ryanair Flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki to Memmingen. During the flight, the window at Karovic’s seat, 11F, shattered. Due to the sudden loss of pressure, he was thrown out of the plane up to his chest and lost consciousness.

His attorney, Vasilis Tsiaras, describes it as a life-threatening situation: Karovic stared death in the face and survived. The entrepreneur himself remembers the explosion most vividly: “That sound haunts me to this day. It’s always there when I close my eyes to fall asleep.”

«Wenn wir sterben, dann zusammen»

Mann wird beinahe aus Flugzeug gesaugt – jetzt spricht seine Ehefrau

Passengers saved his life

According to his wife, Svetlana, fellow passengers saved Karovic’s life. She accuses the cabin crew of failing to intervene. In particular, an Albanian passenger reportedly tried to pull Karovic back into the plane and to seal the shattered window—first with a bag and later, successfully, with a suitcase. Karovic hung partially outside the plane for an estimated one and a half to two minutes and lost consciousness several times.

Dispute Over the Crew's Role

Ryanair rejects the allegations and states that, in light of the loss of cabin pressure, the crew initially followed the required safety procedures and attended to Karovic after the descent. His attorney disagrees: The pilots acted correctly, but the cabin crew did not assist his client at any point. Witnesses reportedly said the crew was in shock out of fear of a crash.

Karovic must wear the neck brace for at least six weeks; only then will the doctors decide whether surgery is necessary. Despite his many years of flying experience, the thought of another flight fills him with great fear. “The images, the sound of the explosion, and the chaos keep coming back to me. I want to get well. And yes, there should also be compensation—not just emails about rebooking the flight.”