A passenger survived after being partially pulled out of the window of a plane that had taken off from Thessaloniki, Greece, on Friday, the Greek news media reported.
The man’s head was out the window as his wife held on to his legs, the Greek reports said, citing a passenger on board. Photos and videos of the cabin posted online show a damaged window and passengers breathing through oxygen masks.
The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of Ryanair, the low-cost Irish carrier. In a statement, Ryanair said that the flight, bound for the German town of Memmingen, “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged inflight.”
“The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” the airline said. “One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.” It did not directly address the reports of a passenger being pulled through the window.
Michalis Giannakos, a union leader at Greece’s federation of hospital workers, also described the condition of the man, who was said to be 61.
“The window of the aircraft broke, his body was pulled outside and his wife was holding his legs for five minutes trying to pull him back inside,” he said in a text message. “With the help of lots of passengers, they managed to pull him back into the cabin,” he added.
A 61-year-old Serbian man was in a hospital in Thessaloniki with friction burns but conscious, according to Silia Skoutelakou, an official in the press office of the Greek health ministry.
Aviation tracking sites said that the aircraft was a Boeing 737 that has been flying since 2008.
