Svetlana Maksimovic and her husband, Ljubisa Karovic, had just made themselves comfortable on a Ryanair flight when suddenly, an explosive sound disrupted the engine’s steady drone.
In a matter of moments, she witnessed a horrifying scene as her 61-year-old husband was pulled forcefully through an open cabin window.
This dramatic event, deemed extremely rare by Greek officials, unfolded as Karovic, seated next to the window, was practically wrenched from his seat during a flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Germany on July 10. Desperate attempts by his wife and nearby passengers to keep him inside the aircraft marked those terrifying minutes.
“I’ve never experienced anything that loud before,” Maksimovic recounted to Reuters. “I turned and saw that part of his body had already been pulled through the window.”
She added with disbelief, “His head and right arm were dangling outside.”
Karovic is now being treated in hospital in Thessaloniki with severe neck and arm injuries.
Greek media and airport sources said that a piece of engine likely broke off and smashed a window early in the flight, causing the cabin to decompress.
Boeing says it’s assisting the investigation, being led by North Macedonia, over which the incident occurred.
The US National Transportation Safety Board and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency are involved in the investigation.
A Greek prosecutor has also launched a probe into the case, while Greek air accident investigators are also looking into it. The aircraft is still in Greece.
“What happened was extremely serious,” the couple’s legal adviser, Vassilis Tsiaras, said, adding that the pending results of the probe were pivotal.
Ryanair, which has confirmed that a window dislodged during the flight, said it would not comment further while the incident is under formal investigation.
After takeoff, Karovic was relaxed and had probably fallen asleep, Maksimovic said.
She said that after the loud bang occurred, a woman sitting next to her husband kept pulling his left arm but it was only after another passenger came to help that they succeeded in getting him back inside the plane, which had by then started to descend.
Maksimovic, who had left her seat to help her husband, put an oxygen mask on him while another passenger gave her one for her own use.
“His face was completely disfigured, there was blood everywhere and his ears, eyes, nose were completely deformed,” she said, adding that her husband was still struggling to recover.
“The consequences remain for him and for me,” Maksimovic said.
“How we’re going to heal and how long that treatment will last and in what way, we’ll see.”