Ryanair boss disputes passenger’s claim he was sucked through a broken window: ‘No part of his body got out’
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.
- Ryanair boss denies passenger was partly sucked out of broken window
- Ljubisa Karovic, 61, injured when cabin window shattered mid-flight in July
- Airline awaits NTSB investigation into the Greece-to-Germany incident
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Ryanair, Europe's largest budget airline, is dealing with the fallout from a mid-air scare on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany on 10 July. A window seat near passenger Ljubisa Karovic shattered at altitude, reportedly after debris from a damaged engine struck the cabin, causing the plane to lose pressure suddenly.
The central disagreement is over exactly what happened to Mr Karovic in the chaotic moments afterwards. He and his lawyers say he was partly pulled through the broken window and had to be held in place by other passengers, while Ryanair's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, says he was pulled towards the window but never went through it. Video and witness accounts from the flight have been cited by both sides.
The dispute matters because it will likely shape any legal claim Mr Karovic brings against the airline, and because it touches on wider questions about passenger safety and how airlines respond when things go wrong. A US aviation safety body is investigating the incident, and its findings are expected to be a key point of reference once the row over what exactly took place is resolved.