Engine Fan‑Blade Failure Leaves Passenger Head at Risk on Ryanair Flight

Broken engine fragments smashed a cabin window of a Ryanair aircraft last month, causing a man’s head and right shoulder to be sucked into the hole, U.S. investigators have said.

The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) shows that an engine fan blade broke a few seconds after take‑off on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany. The fracture sent shrapnel into the right‑hand side of the fuselage where a bulkhead‑type window had been located. Serbian national Ljubisa Karović’s head and right shoulder were pulled through the cracked area, leaving him seriously injured and in a state of shock.

Karović’s wife, Svetlana Grković Maksimović, told BBC Serbia that she and two co‑passengers held on to his legs for several minutes while the crew and other passengers shouted for help. The NTSB’s report states that the flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen experienced a No. 2 (right) engine fan‑blade‑out (FBO) failure during climb‑out. The crew elected to return to SKG, where the aircraft made an uneventful landing.

After the incident, Greek authorities delegated full investigative authority to the NTSB. In the investigators' timeline, the crew received a “high vibration” alert during climb, reduced engine power, and performed checks. When vibrations ceased, the flight continued on autopilot until escalating vibrations and a loud bang prompted an emergency declaration and descent.

Flight attendants reported feeling the vibrations and seeing a small amount of smoke before the oxygen masks deployed. One attendant noted that a passenger had become “partially lodged in a damaged cabin window” with the entire hatch missing.

The engine had undergone ultrasonic inspections in May of this year and none of the inspections revealed faults, according to the NTSB. Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary suggested that a “foreign object damage” (FOD) to the engine might have contributed to the failure.

The aircraft operated under Ryanair’s Malta Air subsidiary. While the incident was resolved with the return to Thessaloniki, it highlights the importance of rigorous engine monitoring, maintenance checks, and the need for safety protocols that ensure that even in the event of an engine failure passengers are protected from airborne debris.