Thessaloniki, Greece \u2014\u00a0A man was nearly sucked out the window of a Ryanair flight when it “detached” midair en route to Germany, with other passengers pulling him back inside, a witness told Greek media on Friday.<\/p>\n
The passenger, described as a tourist from Serbia on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany, was hospitalized with friction burns but was otherwise in good condition, authorities said.<\/p>\n
“Most of us had fallen asleep, we had closed our eyes. There was a noise, like a tire bursting,” a fellow passenger told Radio Thessaloniki. <\/p>\n
“We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams … for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” the woman said. “The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.”<\/p>\n
Other passengers near the man helped to pull him in, she said.<\/p>\n
Video circulating on social media, which CBS News could not independently verify, purportedly showed the inside of the plane after the incident, with a broken window and oxygen masks hanging from the ceiling, but no passengers visible.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
A woman died in a similar sounding incident<\/a> in the U.S. in 2018, and an aviation expert told CBS News at the time that it is possible for a person to be sucked out of a plane window<\/a> in flight if they aren’t wearing a seatbelt, due to the “incredible amount of pressure trying to rush out of that small opening.”<\/p>\n Greek media reported the incident had occurred over North Macedonia, and said the window had been broken by a piece of debris that detached from one of the plane’s engines.<\/p>\n Ryanair said in a statement that the flight “returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window detached during the flight. The aircraft landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal.”<\/p>\n A replacement aircraft was made available to transport the remaining passengers to Memmingen, the Irish carrier said.<\/p>\n \n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n \n Go deeper with The Free Press\n <\/p>\n