Ryanair passenger 'sucked through plane window' issues horror update

The man sucked through a window on a Ryanair flight has described the horrifying ordeal and the moments “before the chaos”. Ljubisa Karović, 61, was travelling from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany when the window next to him shattered and abruptly woke him up.

Objects onboard began flying through the air and out of the window as the people around him, including his wife, desperately tried to keep him held down. The Serbian national was left with burns and bruises on his right arm, stretching from his armpit to his chest, and must wear a neck brace for at least six weeks.

Mr Karović, an interpreter, told The Guardian: “The explosion is what I remember. It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.

“I am lucky. I don’t remember much, and my head and neck still hurt, but I am still alive. It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it is fate. I believe in God, and I thank him every day.”

His lawyer, Vasilis Tsiaras, described the father of two as “being alive by mistake”, saying he fainted two or three times during the terrifying ordeal.

He said: “Ljubisa dipped in and out of death. When the cabin lost pressure he was hurled out of the window from his chest up and immediately lost consciousness. He was on that plane heading to Germany to celebrate his brother’s birthday.

“Instead, at 15,000ft he ended up with his head and right arm outside the aircraft as it moved at a speed of more than 600km/h. Imagine that! He looked at death, that other world, and came back.”

Mr Karović’s wife Svetlana, who was sitting three rows behind him, said none of the cabin crew helped her husband, and another fellow passenger was left trying to plug the broken window with luggage.

Mr Tsiaras added: “My client fainted two or three times, once outside the aircraft when he was partially sucked out of the window, and twice inside when, again, he lost consciousness. At no point did the cabin crew offer to help.”

Ryanair has disputed this, saying that during depressurisation and rapid descent to a lower altitude, passengers and crew are required to stay in their seats and put on oxygen masks.

The airline said in a statement to The Guardian: “As soon as the aircraft descended to a safe altitude our cabin crew attended to and assisted Mr Karović, moving him to alternate seats (beside his wife) and arranged for a doctor onboard to sit with them until the aircraft landed safely back in Thessaloniki.

“They also arranged to have medical assistance standing by on landing in Thessaloniki.”