'If we die, we die together': Wife of man nearly sucked out of Ryanair plane speaks of ordeal

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: 'If we die, we die together': Wife of man nearly sucked out of Ryanair plane speaks of ordealImage source, Facebook/Karovic LjubisaImage caption, The pair were returning from holiday in Thessaloniki, Serbian media reportsByRachel FlynnPublished4 minutes agoA woman who held the legs of her husband as he was nearly sucked head-first out of a Ryanair cabin window on Friday said "half of his body was sticking out of the plane. "Svetlana Grković, who was travelling with her husband Ljubisa Karović from Greece's Thessaloniki to Germany's Memmingen, told Greek public broadcaster ERT he was "outside up to his chest" for two minutes. "I immediately reacted and grabbed his legs.

I thought: 'If we die, we die together,'" Grković told Serbian outlet Nova. With the help of two other passengers, Grković said she was able to pull her husband - who she said lost consciousness three times - back inside. Grković said it seemed like part of the plane's engine had broken off, smashing the window next to her husband and causing decompression in the cabin.

The Details

Other passengers also reported hearing what sounded like an explosion. A technical adviser appointed by the family believes the incident began with a failure in the aircraft's right engine, causing debris to strike and shatter the cabin window before the rapid loss of cabin pressure. That assessment has not been confirmed by investigators.

Passengers earlier told local media that Karović had kept his seatbelt on, helping those on board keep hold of him while his head and shoulders were outside. Svetlana Grković said her 61-year-old husband is "seriously injured and in shock". "It's important to me that he's alive...

his hand is particularly badly injured, and he's got burns. He's not able to communicate, he doesn't remember the whole event," she said. The Ryanair flight was in the air for about 10 minutes, tracking data shows, when it abruptly dropped 9,000ft (2,700m).

What Experts Say

In a statement, Ryanair said its Friday morning flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen returned "shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in flight". "The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki," the Irish budget airline said.

Figure caption, Watch: Inside Ryanair plane flying with dislodged window"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," Christina, a fellow passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki.

Another passenger, Sofia, told Radio Thessaloniki: "We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn't breathe.

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.