Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary has disputed claims that a passenger was partially sucked out of an aircraft window during a mid-flight incident in July, insisting "no part of his body got out" of the plane. His comments contradict the account given by Ljubisa Karovic, 61, and his legal team, who say the Serbian businessman's head and right arm were pulled through a shattered window after sudden cabin depressurisation, leaving him needing to be hauled back inside by fellow passengers. The dispute matters because it centres on how serious the incident actually was, with Ryanair keen to play down the extent of the passenger's exposure while awaiting a formal investigation.

The window beside Mr Karovic, seated at 11F, shattered around 20 minutes after his Ryanair flight left Thessaloniki, Greece, for Memmingen, Germany, on 10 July, reportedly after broken engine parts struck the cabin at 16,000ft. Footage showed passengers holding oxygen masks to their faces and gripping Mr Karovic in place for up to two minutes amid flying glass and rushing wind, with witnesses saying he appeared "half in and out of the plane" before being dragged back in; he spent six days in hospital afterwards. O'Leary, speaking after Ryanair's AGM in Dublin, said Mr Karovic had been wearing his seatbelt and was "sucked towards the window" but not through it, adding the airline was not trying to downplay the episode and would await the outcome of a US National Transportation Safety Board investigation.