Ryanair passenger sucked out of smashed cabin window ‘up to his shoulders’ as wife & bystanders rush to save his life

A RYANAIR passenger was “sucked up to his shoulders” out of a cabin window after it was smashed open by pieces of the jet’s broken engine.

The wife of a 61-year-old Serbian man stopped him being yanked out of the Boeing 737 by gripping onto his legs for five minutes until bystanders rushed in to help.

Flight FR1879 was en route to Memmingen, Germany, after departing from Makedonia airport in Thessaloniki, Greece, this morning at 5:55am.

But shortly after taking off, at a 20,000ft altitude, it was forced to return when passengers heard a deafening bang as the jet’s windows were shattered.

The Serbian man was “sucked” from his seat and into the plane’s slipstream as bystanders screamed and the pilot repeatedly yelled “emergency!” over the speakers, witnesses said.

But as soon as the windows broke, the passenger’s wife pinned him down as his head and shoulders were left hanging out of the aircraft’s body.

She is said to have grappled onto him for about five minutes – before fellow passengers jumped in to help tug his body back to safety.

His head and shoulders were “sticking out of the broken window”, a stunned witness told Greek outlet ERT.

Another witness told local media “his head was completely outside of the plane”.

The man was left wounded following the five-minute nightmare and suffered burns.

He and three others were taken to hospital for their injuries.

The Serbian passenger was reportedly sitting next to the window when the debris struck.

One witness told Radio Thessaloniki: “A noise was heard as if a tire had burst.

“There was panic with screams and voices because we immediately lost altitude from the decompression.

“For a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door.

“The flight attendants lost it. We all immediately put on our masks. It seemed like a very long time before we understood what was happening.”

Another passenger told the outlet: “They grabbed him and held him down, fortunately he hadn’t taken off his seatbelt.

“His head was completely outside the plane. The girls who were next to him were pulling him. Some doctors also went to help him.”

The near-death ordeal unfolded after a failure in the plane’s engine, reports say.

Several windows on the plane’s body were cracked open after pieces of the plane’s motor flung off, according to local media.

But it has not been confirmed what caused the jet’s engine to break or why debris was launched from it.

The plane took off at 5:55am local time on Friday and the plane landed once again about one hour and 14 minutes later.

The plane was cruising at an altitude of 20,000ft when its windows were blown out – sparking on-board mayhem.

Shocking footage showed the aftermath of the chaos – with gas masks seen hanging down and a gaping hole where one of the windows once was.

Ryanair told The Sun the flight returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off after “a passenger window dislodged inflight.”

The airline added the aircraft landed normally and passengers were taken back to the terminal.

One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki, the airline said.

A replacement aircraft was arranged to minimise delays and departed from Thessaloniki to Memmingen at 9:53am local time this morning.