Earlier this morning, a Ryanair Boeing 737-800 flying from Thessaloniki Airport (SKG) in Greece to Memmingen Airport (FMM) in Germany had to return to its point of departure after debris from a dramatic engine failure caused damage to the aircraft’s window. The incident injured one of the plane’s passengers, with some reports suggesting that they were even partially sucked out of the broken window.

Despite the dramatic turn of inflight events, the flight’s pilots were able to safely land the aircraft back in Thessaloniki. Ryanair has since confirmed that the injured passenger received medical assistance upon arrival back in Greece, and the carrier also arranged a replacement aircraft in order to get the flight’s other guests back on their way with as little delay as possible. Let’s see what occurred.

A Dramatic Departure

Credit: Flightradar24

Ryanair flight FR1879 is a regularly scheduled international commercial passenger flight that operates five times a week from Thessaloniki to Memmingen. According to tracking data made available by Flightradar24, today’s iteration was operated by a Malta Air Boeing 737-800 that bears the registration 9H-QEU. It left Thessaloniki at 6:12 AM local time, 17 minutes after its scheduled departure of 5:55 AM.

However, as seen above, things took a dramatic turn when, as reported by Euronews, debris from an inflight engine failure hit and shattered a passenger window. This, The Mirror reports, injured the neck of a male passenger, whose head and shoulders were said to have been partially sucked out of the broken window. This prompted the flight to burn fuel and return to Thessaloniki, with Ryanair saying:

“A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged inflight. The aircraft landed normally, and passengers returned to the terminal.”

A Replacement Aircraft Took Passengers To Memmingen With A Four-Hour Delay

Credit: Shutterstock

A deeper dive into the data for this flight shows that it had reached an altitude of around 16,000 feet before it began to descend, at around 6:23 AM local time. It landed around 45 minutes later, at 7:08 AM, having burned off excess fuel to avoid an overweight landing. At this point, the injured passenger was taken to hospital, with the relevant authorities having now launched an investigation into the incident.

As the potential severity of the incident became clear, the flight’s pilots reportedly declared an emergency, prompting emergency services to meet the jet when it landed back in Thessaloniki. The plane ultimately landed safely, although oxygen masks did have to be deployed. Reporting on the matter by the Aviation Herald also notes that passengers sitting in the row with the broken window had to be relocated.

As noted, Ryanair was ultimately able to arrange a replacement aircraft to take the remaining passengers onwards to Memmingen. A quick look at further tracking data made available by Flightradar24 shows that this flight ultimately left Thessaloniki at 10:03 AM and landed in Memmingen at 11:00 AM, just under four hours after the planned 7:10 AM arrival. The return leg was also delayed by around four hours.

Such Incidents Are Rare But Not Unheard Of

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

While undoubtedly an alarming incident, it is important to remember that incidents such as these are few and far between. Another notable example occurred in the US back in 2018, when debris from an engine failure burst a cabin window on Southwest Airlines flight 1380. This incident, which sadly resulted in the death of a female passenger, followed a similar engine failure on another Southwest flight in 2016

Of course, it isn’t just cabin windows that can be blown out inflight. Looking further back in time, a 1990 British Airways BAC 1-11 flight from Birmingham (BHX) to Malaga (AGP) made headlines around the world after improperly installed bolts caused a cockpit window to blow out. The flight’s Captain was sucked out of the cockpit and pinned to the nose for 20 minutes, but, incredibly, survived the ordeal.