Svetlana Grković held husband as he was partially sucked out after Ryanair flight's window shattered mid-air: 'If we die, we die together'

Svetlana Grković was flying from Greece to Germany when a window shattered, sucking out the man sitting nearby. Half of his body was outside the window, though he had his seatbelt on. But Ljubisa Karović's wife held him by the legs and said: "If we die, we die together".

The incident took place a few days ago on Ryanair flight FR1879, which was flying from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen near Munich in Germany on Friday. It was operated by the budget airline’s subsidiary Malta Air.

The flight was airborne for just over an hour and reached 16,000 ft before coming back to Thessaloniki airport.


For two minutes, the husband was outside up to his chest.

Wife and passengers pulled him back inside

Grković said that with the help of two passengers, she was able to pull her husband, who lost consciousness three times, back inside the aircraft. She said that many people fled their seats to other parts of the plane for safety as the cabin decompressed.

Passengers have told local media that Karović had kept his seatbelt on and helped those on board keep hold of him while his upper torso was in the plane’s slipstream outside.

Husband hospitalised after incident

The shock of the incident is massive. The husband is in a hospital receiving treatment.

“It’s important to me that he’s alive,” the wife said. “His hand is particularly badly injured, and he’s got burns. He’s not able to communicate; he doesn’t remember the whole event.”

“Some people came to my aid, I remember one man and one woman,” she added. “That man helped me a lot, Ljubisa and me. I think he was Albanian, thank you very much. I didn’t remember his name, I don’t even know if he told me. I would like to meet him, to thank him personally again.”

Ryanair's response

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when a passenger window dislodged inflight. The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki. In order to minimise any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen."