A Ryanair window ‘dislodged’ midair, and a passenger claims a man’s head was completely outside the plane

A window seat passenger on a Ryanair flight bound for Munich came close to being pulled out of the aircraft when the window unexpectedly failed mid-flight, as detailed by LADbible. Flight FR1879 had just taken off from Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki, Greece on Friday morning, July 10, when the Boeing 737-800 lost cabin pressure and oxygen masks dropped throughout the plane.

Ryanair’s own statement notes the flight’s actual destination was Memmingen, near Munich, though local reporting referred to it simply as bound for Munich. The 61-year-old man, said to be from Serbia, was seated in the window seat closest to the failure. Passengers say he was almost pulled out of the plane as decompression hit and wind began rushing through the cabin.

One eyewitness said she saw the man’s head “completely outside the plane.” His wife reportedly held onto him as the chaos unfolded, according to Greek outlet ProtoThema, while flight attendants scrambled to respond. Sudden cabin decompression is treated as a serious in-flight emergency.

What actually happens during a decompression

According to SKYbrary and the FAA, decompression events are classified as explosive, rapid, or gradual depending on how quickly cabin pressure is lost. Explosive decompression occurs in under half a second and poses the greatest risk of lung damage and flying debris. Rapid decompression, the more common type, still requires an immediate emergency descent and oxygen use to prevent hypoxia.

Data from FlightAware shows the aircraft was airborne for just over an hour before pilots turned back and landed safely at Macedonia Airport. Ryanair confirmed the incident in a statement, saying the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in-flight,” adding that the plane “landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal.”

The airline said one passenger requested medical assistance on the ground, and a replacement aircraft was arranged to carry passengers on to their original destination. Terrifying in-flight incidents that spread quickly online are not unusual, including a JetBlue flight where a bizarre cabin announcement during severe turbulence left passengers more frightened rather than reassured.

Michalis Giannakos, who heads the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Employees, described the incident as a “near-tragedy” in a social media post. “The plane window broke, his body went up in the air, and his wife held him back for five minutes to keep him from leaving,” he wrote. He said several passengers helped pull the man back into the cabin before the plane made what he described as an emergency landing back in Thessaloniki.

According to his account, the man was taken to a hospital, was conscious, in shock, and had friction burns, with tests continuing afterward. A woman on board described the moment to Radio Thessaloniki 94.5, saying the cabin fell into panic almost immediately. “A noise was heard as if a tyre had burst,” she said. “There was panic with screams, screams and voices because we immediately lost altitude from the decompression.”

She said she initially thought someone had opened an emergency door by mistake before realizing what had actually happened. She confirmed the injured man had kept his seatbelt fastened, which she credited with preventing him from being pulled further out. “His head was completely outside the plane,” she said. “The girls who were next to him were pulling him. Some doctors also went to help him.”

A pregnant passenger was also taken for precautionary medical checks and was later discharged after an ultrasound found no concerns.