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This July, a Serbian man reported to have been almost sucked out of a broken window during Ryanair flight 1879 from Thessaloniki in Greeceto Memmingen near Munich. It was said that he was saved by his wife, who was hanging onto his legs. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has challenged this claim made about the flight operated by its subsidiary Malta Air.
He has now told reporters that the man was “certainly sucked towards the window, but he didn’t get out the window”. O’Leary told reporters the carrier would dispute the claim. The remarks were made following the airline’s annual meeting in Dublin
O’Leary Insists He Is Not Downplaying The Event
Despite the semantics, O’Leary insists he isn’t trying to downplay the severity of the incident and that the airline will await the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report. Simple Flying has contacted Ryanair, which declined to comment until the NTSB report is concluded.
There also appears to have been an acknowledgment that the passenger involved will be due some compensation for the neck and shoulder injuries that they sustained. Dublin Live has reported that the airline has been in touch with the passenger’s lawyer on this matter. However, O’Leary has also said he doesn’t believe there will be “any class action” or a payout worth millions.
O’Leary has challenged the widely accepted narrative.
“We don’t think any part of his body got out the window, but he was certainly sucked in very dramatic circumstances towards the window… We will be certainly at the end of the process disputing that he or any part of his anatomy will bend out the window.”
What Has The Victim Said?
The CEO’s remarks run counter to what the incident’s victim and his wife have said. Karović’s wife Svetlana said that her husband was “half in and half out of the plane” in an interview with The Guardian shortly after his discharge from hospital. She also said that another unknown Albanian passenger helped save Karović by blocking the window with a suitcase. He also tried to block the window with a bag that was immediately sucked out of the plane. Meanwhile, Karović has said that he blacked out during the incident, but thinks his seatbelt helped keep him inside the jet.
Regardless of the precise circumstances of the incident, it is clear that Karović has been profoundly physically and mentally harmed. He has told The Guardian that the thought of the deafening explosion keeps him up at night and that his neck and head continue to hurt. The man’s lawyer, Vasilis Tsiaras, has said his client is “alive by mistake.”
O’Leary’s comments were made to reporters after the Ryanair AGM. At the meeting, a third of shareholders voted against an extremely generous pay deal for O’Leary, with a maximum value of €150 million ($174 million). Various news outlets have described this as a “revolt.” The airline said it will publish the exact results of the vote later.
The airline originally arranged this compensation package with O’Leary over the summer. The deal would give him options to buy ten million shares at €26.70 ($31.05) a share. O’Leary would have to reach an annual profit of €4 billion ($4.65 billion) or have the share price exceed €42 ($48.84) for 28 successive days. He would also have to remain head of Ryanair until 2032, making his total tenure 38 years. A year ago, it was reported that O’Leary was on track to earn over €100 million ($116 million) in bonuses, which still appears to be the case.
