U.S. investigators are filling in the pieces of a cabin decompression event on a Ryanair flight that caused a passenger to be partially sucked through an open window portal.
The NTSB said Thursday that broken components from the Boeing 737-800’s right engine burst the window next to the passenger, causing the decompression.
Media sources in Greece, where the flight originated, have speculated that some kind of engine failure occurred, but until this week no official investigative body had confirmed it.
The incident took place on July 10, during a short-haul flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen, Germany.
Passengers told media outlets that they heard a loud bang, then saw a male passenger being pulled through the smashed window frame. His head and shoulders were briefly outside the aircraft fuselage, they said, but his seatbelt kept him in place, and other passengers helped pull him fully back inside the cabin.
The NTSB said the individual suffered “serious injuries.”
Investigators in Greece found bird remains inside the right engine, but the exact cause of the failure is still under review.
Greece officially handed over the investigation to the NTSB.
