What Caused the Ryanair Mid-Air Window Failure? 'Foreign Object' Under Investigation

Investigators are working to determine what caused the engine failure that triggered the mid-air emergency (Credit: Michael Oldfield, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY‑SA 4.0)

A preliminary investigation into the Ryanair flight that left a passenger partially sucked through a shattered cabin window is focusing on whether a 'foreign object' damaged one of the aircraft's engines during take-off. Investigators have yet to determine the exact cause.

The incident occurred on 10 July when a Ryanair-operated Malta Air Boeing 737-800 travelling from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, suffered an engine failure shortly after departure. Debris hit a cabin window, causing rapid depressurisation and forcing the aircraft to return to Thessaloniki.