Ryanair passenger says he was partly sucked out of aircraft window: I am lucky'

A Ryanair passenger on board the unfortunate flight FR1879 recalls a horrific in-flight experience that nearly killed him.

Ljubisa Karovic, who described himself as an entrepreneur from Serbia, recalled for the first time the near-death experience of an emergency landing of a Ryanair aircraft.

The incident took place on July 10, 2026.

After the Ryanair aircraft made emergency landing, Karovic sustained neck and shoulder injuries and some friction burns and was shifted to hospital.

Ljubisa Karovic was onboard a Ryanair flight operated by Malta Air from Thessaloniki, Greece, en route to Memmingen, Germany.

Soon after departure, the flight got stuck in debris which reportedly came from the aircraft’s damaged engine and shattered a window where Karovic was seated.

Speaking for first time, Karovic opened up about the traumatic experience in an interview with The Guardian.

“The explosion is what I remember,” Krovic said.

“It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep,” Karovic told the outlet while recalling the traumatic nightmare.

“They tell me I fainted twice and again inside the plane and that my face was briefly swollen and deformed because of the pressure, the rush of air,” he described.

In an in-flight rescue, which was nothing less than a miracle, Karovic’s wife, along with other passengers came to his help and pulled him back inside the aircraft.

Karovic has been advised to wear a neck band for six-weeks; after that a surgery option will be determined.

As Karovic struggled to recall much of the event, he’s considered himself lucky to be alive, saying, “I am lucky. I don’t remember much and my head and neck still hurt, but I am still alive.”