Ryanair CEO Disputes Reports Man Was Partially Sucked Out of Broken Window Mid-Flight

An executive at Irish airline Ryanair says the company will be “disputing” claims that a man’s body was sucked out of one of its aircraft mid-flight.
On the morning of July 10, 61-year-old Serbian Ljubisa Karović claims he was partially sucked out of Ryanair plane window headfirst on a flight from Greece to Germany. According to a statement from the budget carrier shared with PEOPLE at the time, the incident occurred when a window became “dislodged inflight.”
Karović’s lawyer, Vasilis Tsiaras told The Guardian that his client “was hurled out of the window from his chest up and immediately lost consciousness” after the cabin lost pressure.”

View of the row 11 passenger cabin window from the interior, right side of the cabin.National Transportation Safety Board
However, CEO Michael O’Leary said the company isn’t convinced he exited the aircraft at all. “We don’t think any part of his body got out the window, but he was certainly sucked in very dramatic circumstances towards the window,” O’Leary told reporters at a news conference following the airline’s annual general meeting on Thursday, Sept. 10, according to The New York Times.
He added: “He wasn’t partially out the window, and his wife, who claims that she saved him by hanging on to his feet, is certainly somewhat delusional, given that she was sitting in a seat three rows behind him.”
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary.Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty
Tsiaras claimed to the outlet that his client’s head, hand and part of his upper body were pulled out of the Boeing 737’s window and that his wife rushed from a row behind him to help, alongside other passengers. He said Karović’s injuries to his armpit and hand support their claims, as well as four or five witnesses who saw Karović’s body partially exit the aircraft.
“I have eyewitnesses who were on the plane and saw what happened,” Tsiaras said. “So I think Mr. O’Leary is delusional — not my client or his wife.”
O’Leary did not dispute that Karović was injured or that he is entitled to compensation, according to the Times. However, he insisted the passenger “won’t be getting millions and millions.”
“We will be, certainly at the end of the process, disputing that he, or any part of his anatomy, will have made it out the window,” he added.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board has taken over the investigation into the incident. According to the department’s preliminary report released in August, a flight attendant noticed passengers asking for help and realized that Karović, sitting in row 11, was lodged in the damaged window.
Images from the NTSB show damage to the Ryanair aircraft’s right side of the fuselage.National Transportation Safety Board
“Other passengers were assisting and managed to pull the injured passenger back into the cabin,” the report read, adding that he was then moved to row 12 and attended to by a doctor on board. A flight attendant provided a first aid kit.
Analysis showed that the No. 2 engine “experienced a fan blade separation that resulted in engine fragments striking the fuselage and the right horizontal stabilizer.” The fragments went through the metal that surrounds the engine and shattered the window of row 11, leaving a dent in the plane near row 8 and hitting the plane below the wing, the report stated.
Images from the NTSB show damage to the Ryanair aircraft’s engine barrel.National Transportation Safety Board
The report’s findings ran contrary to some comments O’Leary made shortly after the incident, in which he appeared to downplay reports that a passenger had been “halfway out the window” as “salacious,” per CNN.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy criticized O’Leary for commenting on the open investigation in a letter last month.
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“Accredited representatives and their technical advisers are prohibited from making any comments regarding the potential cause of the event or otherwise conveying potential investigative information,” she wrote.
“Mr. O’Leary’s public statements violate [international rules] as they provide an opinion and analysis of the accident and suggest potential areas of interest in the ongoing investigation.”
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The investigation remains open, with NTSB probes usually taking between one and two years to complete.