Friday, July 10 – A scheduled early morning Ryanair flight from Greece’s Thessaloniki Airport to Memmingen in Germany had to make an emergency return to Thessaloniki after a passenger was partially sucked out of a cabin window soon after takeoff.

The passenger, a Serbian man in his 60s, was left with his head out of the aircraft, only prevented from being sucked further out by his seatbelt and the quick reaction of his wife and other passengers, who helped to pull him back inside the plane.

It is believed that an engine failure hurled debris at the window, which shattered, causing a sudden decompression of the cabin and deployment of the oxygen masks. The aircraft, an 18-year-old Boeing 737, was being operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air.

In a statement, Ryanair said, “The aircraft landed normally, and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.”

The Irish budget airline added that “a replacement aircraft was arranged to take passengers onward to Memmingen” several hours later.

The accident is a clear demonstration of why passengers should wear their seatbelts throughout a flight.