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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Ian Sample and Gwyn Topham

Why did Ryanair-Air Malta plane window blow out mid-air and could it happen again?

A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft during takeoff
A Ryanair Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the model involved. Early reports suggest parts of a damaged engine broke the window. Photograph: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Rex

For nervous flyers, it sounds like the stuff of nightmares; for most, only contemplated in an action movie. But last week, a passenger really was nearly sucked out through a broken aircraft window mid-flight.

Ljubisa Karović was on a Ryanair-Air Malta flight leaving Thessaloniki in Greece when the adjacent window blew out of the Boeing 737-800, pulling his head and shoulders out of the plane. His wife and fellow passengers helped to keep him inside.

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