A woman has described the terrifying moment she clung to her husband’s legs to keep him from being pulled through a shattered Ryanair plane window at 20,000 feet, saying her only thought was: “If we die, we die together.”
Serbian passenger Ljubiša Karović, 61, was reportedly dragged toward the opening after debris from an engine broke the window about 30 minutes into Friday’s early-morning flight from Thessaloniki, Greece.
“The pressure pulled Ljubiša. Luckily, he was strapped in, but half of his body was sticking out of the plane,” his wife, Svetlana Grković, told Serbian outlet Nova.
Grković said she acted on instinct, grabbing hold of his legs in a desperate effort to keep him inside the aircraft. “I thought, ‘If we die, we die together.’ It was horrible,” she recalled.
As the cabin pressure dropped, Karović lost consciousness several times, according to his wife.
Grković said she and another passenger held onto him as the plane, which had been headed for Memmingen, Germany, was diverted back to Thessaloniki.
Karović, who works selling and renting apartments in Greece, was left seriously injured and in shock after the ordeal, his wife said.
“His hand is particularly badly injured and he’s got burns,” Grković added.
“He’s not able to communicate, he doesn’t remember the whole event.”
But she said, “It’s important to me that he’s alive.”
Other witnesses said Karović had “blood on his head and kept passing out,” Greek outlet Protothema reported.
The plane safely returned to Thessaloniki – but footage showed one of the engine’s nacelles – or protective pods – shredded with an engine blade missing.
But as chaos unfolded in the air, some travelers feared the plane would crash.
“We were all wearing oxygen masks and didn’t know if we’d make it,” one said.
A Ryanair spokesperson told The Post the plane returned to Thessaloniki when a window “dislodged in flight.”
One passenger received medical assistance on the ground – while other travelers were put on a replacement aircraft which left the Greek city later that morning.
The incident is being investigated.
