A woman has described the terrifying moment she held onto her husband's legs after he was nearly sucked out of a Ryanair plane window.
Svetlana Grković was travelling with her husband, 61-year-old Ljubisa Karović, from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. Only ten minutes into the flight, there was a loud explosion-like noise. A cabin window next to Mr. Karović broke, causing a sudden loss of air pressure.
"His right shoulder and head were outside the plane," Mrs. Grković told reporters. She immediately reacted and grabbed his legs, thinking, "If we die, we die together."
Two other passengers rushed to help her, and together they managed to pull Mr. Karović back inside after about two minutes. Fortunately, he was wearing his seatbelt, which helped the passengers hold onto him. When they pulled him back, he was bleeding from his nose and mouth, and had lost consciousness several times due to the lack of oxygen and shock.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800 operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air, quickly dropped 9,000 feet (2,700 meters) and returned safely to Thessaloniki airport.
Mr. Karović is currently in the hospital with serious injuries, including burns and a badly hurt hand. Both he and his wife are in deep psychological shock. Mrs. Grković said she now feels suffocated in closed spaces like elevators. "Now the question is whether we will ever get on a plane again," she said.
Aviation authorities from Greece, the United States, and Europe are currently investigating what caused the window to break. A technical advisor for the family believes that debris from a failing engine might have hit and shattered the window, though investigators have not confirmed this.