Eyewitness photo shows broken window inside Ryanair plane

A passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair Boeing 737 flight shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in Greece yesterday, two airport sources said, forcing the aircraft to make an emergency landing.

Eyewitness photos from, Despoina Papapavlou, one of the passengers on board the flight, showed the smashed window on board the Ryanair flight.

Ms Papapavlou was travelling to Germany with a friend when their journey turned into a “terrifying experience on board”.

Her friend also told Reuters the experience was so traumatic that they would think twice before flying again.

Reuters verified the interior of the cabin, including the seats and windows, which matched archive images of a Ryanair Boeing 737.

The broken window also matches reports of an incident in which a passenger was partially sucked through a dislodged window on a Ryanair Boeing 737 flight shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in Greece yesterday.

Corroborating visuals from local media also match the shape and cracks of the broken window.

The date when the images were taken was confirmed by original file metadata.

The plane was scheduled to fly from Thessaloniki to Memmingen airport in Germany but returned to Thessaloniki “when a passenger window dislodged inflight,” Ryanair said in a statement.

It is unclear what led to the broken window.

“The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal,” Ryanair said.

The Irish airline said a replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen.

The Serbian national who was partially sucked through the window was transferred to the AHEPA University General Hospital in Thessaloniki but did not face life-threatening injuries, the Serbian consulate said, adding that doctors were determining the extent of the injuries.

Serbian media quoted a passenger telling Radio Thessaloniki that the man’s head and shoulders were outside the aircraft before fellow passengers pulled him back in.

The US Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the plane was a Boeing 737 NG – the version before the current MAX generation of 737 planes.