'If we die, we die together': Wife of passenger sucked out of plane window describes ordeal

A woman whose husband was partially sucked out of the window during a Ryanair flight has described how half of his body was left sticking out of the plane for "up to two minutes".

Svetlana Grkovic and her husband Ljubisa Karovic were flying from Thessaloniki, Greece to Memmingen airport in Germany when their aircraft had to return to make an emergency landing at Thessaloniki shortly after take-off on Friday.

Local media in Greece reported ‌that a piece of the engine broke off and smashed a window, causing the cabin to decompress.

"As the window broke, decompression occurred in the cabin," Ms Grkovic told Romanian news outlet Nova.

"The pressure pulled Ljubisa, luckily he was strapped in, but half of his body was sticking out of the plane. I immediately reacted and grabbed his legs.

"I thought: 'If we die, we die together.' It was horrible."

She said it had seemed like part of the aircraft's engine broke off and hit the window next to where her husband was sitting.

Videos from the inside of the plane showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another showed the blown-out window.

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'My husband fainted three times'

Ms Grkovic told Greek news site ERT News her husband was "out up to this chest and stayed there for up to two minutes".

"I was sitting in the back. The girl sitting next to him grabbed his hand. Three of us were pulling him in. The masks fell off and there was chaos," she said.

"My husband fainted three times. They put a suitcase in the window, but it was sucked out."

Man left 'seriously injured and in shock'

Ms Grkovic said her husband was left "seriously injured" after the ordeal.

"It's important to me that he's alive. He's seriously injured and in shock. His hand is particularly badly injured, and he's got burns. He's not able to communicate, he doesn't remember the whole event," she told Nova.

In her interview with ERT News she said: "He's wearing a collar, he's in shock and he hears about planes and he's shaking.

"I'm also in a bad psychological state, I'm taking tranquilisers. I was afraid for our lives. I was afraid the plane would crash."

Passenger describes 'screams, shrieks, shouting' as plane lost altitude

Flight records show the aircraft climbed past 15,000ft around six minutes after departure before immediately descending to around 6,000ft "to burn fuel for 30 minutes" before returning to Thessaloniki around an hour after take-off, Flightradar24 said.

Passengers told Greek media they heard a loud bang and oxygen masks dropped as the plane began to lose altitude.

One passenger, Christina, told Radio Thessaloniki some passengers panicked and screamed.

She said Mr Karovic's "whole head, neck, [and] shoulders" were pulled out of the window.

"Most people had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. We heard a sound, I'd describe it like a tyre bursting … but very loud," she said. "We knew straight away we lost pressure because we lost altitude."

She said there were "screams, shrieks, shouting."

Ryanair says passenger window 'dislodged inflight'

In a statement Ryanair said the plane had to make an emergency landing "when a passenger window dislodged inflight".

"The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to ‌the terminal," the statement added.

"One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.

"In order to minimise any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen."

(c) Sky News 2026: 'If we die, we die together': Wife of passenger sucked out of plane window describes ordeal