A Serbian businessman has given his first detailed account of being partially sucked out of a Ryanair aircraft after a window ruptured at cruising altitude on 10 July. Ljubisa Karović, 61, was seated in row 11F of flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, Germany, when what he described as an “explosion” threw his head and right arm outside the Boeing 737. He lost consciousness immediately, according to his Greek lawyer Vasilis Tsiaras, and remained with his upper body outside the cabin for approximately two minutes while the plane descended rapidly from around 15,000 feet at a speed of more than 600 km/h.

Karović, who spoke to The Guardian and ITV from a rented villa near Thessaloniki, said he still suffers headaches, neck pain, burns and bruising, and must wear a cervical collar for at least six weeks. “I am lucky. I don’t remember much and my head and neck still hurt, but I am still alive,” he said. His wife, Svetlana Grković, who was seated three rows behind, told Serbian media that she rushed to grab his legs, and credited an Albanian passenger with blocking the ruptured window using a suitcase after a smaller bag was immediately sucked out. Medical sources confirmed Karović was hospitalised for a week and may require surgery.

Conflicting accounts have emerged over the cabin crew’s response. Tsiaras alleged that flight attendants were “paralysed by fear” and offered no assistance, while passengers organised water and care. Ryanair rejected this, stating that crew followed safety protocols requiring all persons to remain strapped in and use oxygen masks during the emergency descent, and that once at a safe altitude, staff moved Karović to another seat and a doctor on board stayed with him until landing back at Thessaloniki. The airline’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said preliminary findings suggest a foreign object damaged the engine on take-off, which in turn caused the window failure, though he stressed no definitive conclusion had been reached.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation from Greek authorities, with a draft report expected within roughly four weeks. The incident is the most serious in a recent series of disruptive events aboard European flights, including a mass brawl on an EasyJet service from Tenerife to Liverpool that forced a return to the departure airport, and a Ryanair flight from Barcelona to Manchester where passengers were held on a sweltering aircraft for over two hours during a thunderstorm delay. No link between the events has been suggested, and investigations into each remain ongoing.