A woman has described the terrifying moments aboard a Ryanair flight when her husband was almost pulled through a shattered window mid-flight, saying she and fellow passengers fought to keep him inside the aircraft as half his body hung outside.
Speaking outside the hospital where her husband is now recovering, Svetlana Maksimovic recounted the ordeal, calling it a harrowing experience that unfolded in seconds.
Maksimovic said she had been sitting across the aisle from her husband and that the Ryanair flight appeared routine until a sudden, deafening bang ripped through the cabin.
Reports have said that a section of the plane’s engine broke away and struck the window during the flight.
When Maksimovic turned toward her husband, she said he was already trapped halfway outside the aircraft.
“I got up and unfastened my seatbelt. The woman sitting next to him was holding onto his arm. I went over to help her, but we just didn’t have the strength,” Maksimovic recalled. “We couldn’t pull him away from the window. Then a man from across the aisle got up, came over and helped us.
“Together, we managed to pull him back inside. His upper body was severely disfigured, his arm was badly injured and there was blood everywhere.”
Maksimovic said her instinct was to move instantly, grabbing hold of her husband’s legs as others tried to pull him back from the window.
“I thought: ‘If we die, we die together.’ It was horrible,” she said.
As all of that was happening, she said the flight attendants were at the front of the aircraft wearing oxygen masks and that no one came to help.
Maksimovic said someone should be held accountable for what happened.
The flight had departed from Greece and was bound for Germany.
Ryanair said it would not provide further comment while the incident remains under formal investigation.
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