US investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have released a preliminary report stating that a broken engine fan blade caused fragments to smash a cabin window on a Ryanair plane, sucking a man's head and shoulder out of the plane. The incident occurred on July 10 during a flight from Greece to Germany. Ljubisa Karović, a Serbian national, was left seriously injured and in shock after being partially lodged in the damaged window for several minutes. An engine ultrasonic inspection in May had found no faults, contradicting earlier speculation by Ryanair's boss that foreign object damage might have been responsible.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-14,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
A Ryanair plane's engine broke apart shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki, Greece on July 10, causing a 61-year-old passenger's head and shoulder to be partially sucked out of a window. The incident occurred when a fan blade in the Boeing 737-800's right engine broke loose, sending fragments that shattered the window and damaged the fuselage. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found bird remains inside the engine, suggesting the plane may have struck birds during takeoff. The passenger suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns before being pulled back into the plane by his fellow passengers. The investigation is ongoing, with the NTSB leading the inquiry under international aviation rules.
Written for “Ryanair Plane Engine Failure Incident” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 740 · logged 2026-08-27
- Published
Broken engine fragments smashed a cabin window of a Ryanair plane causing a man's head and right shoulder to be sucked into the hole last month, US investigators have said.
asserted
investigators → publish → hole
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wrote in a preliminary report that this happened after an engine fan blade broke shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany.
asserted
blade → write → Germany
Serbian national Ljubisa Karović's head and right shoulder were sucked out of the plane's window, leaving him "seriously injured and in shock".
asserted
head → suck → shock
His wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović later told BBC Serbia that she and two other passengers held onto his legs for several minutes.
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she → tell → minutes
The NTSB said the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen "experienced a No. 2 (right) engine fan-blade-out (FBO) failure during climb out".
"
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flight → say → out
The crew elected to return to SKG [Thessaloniki International Airport] where they made an uneventful landing."
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they → elect → landing
The NTSB was "delegated the investigation in full" by the Greek authorities in the days following the incident.
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NTSB → delegate → incident
It also detailed a timeline of events given by the flight crew, who said they received a "high vibration" engine alert during the climb.
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they → detail → climb
In response, they reduced the engine power and carried out a series of checks.
asserted
they → reduce → checks
When the vibrations stopped, the crew continued to climb on autopilot, the report said.
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report → stop → autopilot
But the engine vibrations then increased and the crew heard a loud bang, prompting them to declare an emergency and begin their descent.
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crew → increase → descent
Flight attendants reported hearing and feeling the vibrations, and seeing a small amount of smoke before the oxygen masks were deployed.
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masks → report → smoke
One flight attendant said they then noticed passengers calling for help after a passenger became "partially lodged in a damaged cabin window", with the entire window missing.
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window → say → window
The engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May this year with no findings of fault, the report stated.
uncertain
report → undergo → fault
Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary earlier suggested that the incident may have been caused by "foreign object damage" to an engine.
uncertain
incident → suggest → engine
The aircraft was operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air.
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aircraft → operate → subsidiary
