NewzBroken engine parts shattered a window on a Ryanair flight shortly after takeoff in Greece last month, causing a man’s head to be sucked through the opening before fellow passengers pulled him back inside, U.S. investigators said Thursday.A fan blade in the Boeing 737-800's right engine broke loose, sending fragments flying out of the engine that broke the window and damaged the fuselage in several other places, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board. Greece turned the investigation over to the U.S.
agency under international aviation rules.The July 10 accident happened after the flight departed the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki. Investigators found bird remains inside the engine, suggesting the plane may have struck birds during takeoff, though they haven't determined what caused the fan blade to break loose.The 61-year-old passenger suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns.Panicked passengers helped the man after the window brokeThe flight attendants told investigators they heard and felt loud, continuous vibration and saw smoke or fog fill the cabin before the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.One flight attendant then noticed some passengers standing and calling for help. The man in a row 11 window seat was partially lodged in the damaged window, and other passengers pulled him back into the cabin.The injured passenger was moved to row 12, where a doctor on board tended to him.
Other passengers retrieved a metal box from the flight attendants and used it to try to block the opening until the plane could land.A series of short videos recorded inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the broken window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.The engine's fan blades were inspected in MayMaintenance records show the fan blades in the right engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May 2026 and November 2025, with no damage found.
But flight crews had reported four suspected bird strikes to the same engine over the previous year, according to the NTSB. Bird remains were found after two of them.Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration investigator who rev… A preliminary report by US investigators says an engine fan blade broke on last month's flight from Greece to Germany.
The incident caused a man’s head to be sucked into the hole in the fuselage before his fellow passengers pulled him to safety. Bird remains were found in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window shortly after take-off from Greece in July, the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday. The NTSB is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window.
The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing. The NTSB said in its preliminary report into the July 10... Broken engine parts shattered a window on a Ryanair plane shortly after takeoff in Greece last month.
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