Engine fragments struck a window of a Ryanair plane last month resulting in a man nearly being sucked out of the aircraft mid-flight, according to a preliminary report published Thursday by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
A tourist on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany on July 16 had his head lodged in a cabin window that had broken off as a result of the breach, and had to be pulled back inside by other passengers.
NTSB said in a preliminary investigation report that the jet's right engine experienced a "fan-blade-out failure" during ascent, meaning a blade in the engine fan broke off.
"Engine fragments breached the fuselage and the cabin depressurized," the report said.
A flight attendant saw that a passenger "was partially lodged in a damaged cabin window, and that the entire window was missing," it continued.
The passenger sustained serious injuries, according to the report.
Investigators said they found bird remains inside the engine, but did not draw any conclusions on why the fan blade broke.
Recounting the incident, a passenger told Radio Thessaloniki that "there was a noise, like a tire bursting."
"We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," AFP quoted the woman as saying.
Engine fragments also damaged other parts of the fuselage and the right horizontal stabilizer, the NTSB said.
The full NTSB investigation, which can take up to two years, is under way and a final report remains pending.
