The man who was ‘sucked’ into a broken window on a Ryanair flight has said he was lucky to escape with his life after the terrifying incident in midair.
Ljubisa Karovic, 61, walked away with neck and shoulder injuries after the plane window broke at 20,000ft during their journey from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen near Munich, Germany, on July 10.
Fellow passengers have described hearing a loud bang “like a tyre bursting” before the window ruptured. Mr Karovic’s wife, Svetlana Grković, said she had to pull her husband back into the plane as he repeatedly lost consciousness while hanging outside of the plane.
Speaking out about his terrifying ordeal, the Serbian businessman told The Guardian: “The explosion is what I remember. It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.”
“I am lucky,” he said. “My head and neck still hurt, but I am alive. It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it is fate. I believe in God and I thank him every day.”
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Staying in a rented villa near Thessaloniki, Mr Karovic is wearing a neck brace for at least six weeks and has been told he may need surgery. He still has burns and bruises on his right arm, up to his armpit and chest.
Last week he was said to be stuck in hospital and unable to speak after two minutes spent with his head and chest outside the cabin, according to witnesses.
Mr Karovic and his wife were travelling to Germany to see family when they heard a loud bang around half an hour after take-off. His passenger window was shattered by what appeared to be a part of the engine breaking off, causing sudden decompression.
Ms Grković, who was seated behind her husband, said they were “eternally grateful” to one passenger who she believes is Albanian for his part in the rescue.
She told The Guardian: “He did all he could to bring him in and then tried to block the window, first with a bag that was immediately sucked out and then with a suitcase, which worked.”
She had earlier described the terror of holding on to her husband’s legs to pull him back in while thinking: “If we die, we die together”.
She told Serbian outlet Nova that her husband lost consciousness “several times” while hanging outside of the plane as other passengers rushed in to help hold him down last Friday.
“Three of us were pulling him back inside. The oxygen masks dropped and chaos broke out,” she told Greek outlet ERT. “They put a suitcase against the window but it was sucked out.”
In a statement at the time, Ryanair said the plane “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged in-flight”.
They said the plane landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal, and one passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.
Early investigations have indicated that the aircraft was damaged by a foreign object, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told analysts on Monday as he presented Ryanair's results for the April-June quarter.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the US said on July 16 it was taking over an investigation into the flight.
The incident occurred in Greek airspace and international aviation rules allow Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand the investigation over to the NTSB.
A draft incident report is set to be issued in around 28 days with a more detailed report to follow.
