Why a blown-out plane window nearly sucked a passenger outside at 16K feet

After a passenger was nearly sucked out of a Ryanair plane when a window failed shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki, Greece, experts are explaining how the window could have cracked and broken.

In the wake of the frightening ordeal, they also urge flyers to heed important warnings.

"Follow crew directions," Steve Arroyo, a Florida-based aviation safety expert and retired airline captain with 37 years of experience, told Fox News Digital.

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"It seems redundant, but always have your seat belt fastened whenever you're seated," he added.

Richard J. Levy, an aviation consultant, former American Airlines captain and Boeing 737 flight crew training instructor in Texas, told Fox News Digital that the depressurization happened after a piece of the engine reportedly broke off and struck the window. 

"With a cracked window and the pressure on the window from cabin pressurization, the window cracked, broke — and then the extreme difference in air pressure from the cabin to the outside creates a strong suction," the expert said. 

"The person was then sucked out."

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Rapid decompressions are "extremely rare events" at major airlines, Arroyo said, adding that commercial aviation is overall one of the safest modes of transportation today.

"It is mind-boggling that 4.4 billion passengers flew on the world's airlines in 2023 — 1.8 billion international passengers and 2.6 billion domestic passengers," he said. "Yet, there were zero accidents."

But one expert told Fox News Digital that incidents like these are "not as uncommon as most passengers would like to think."

William J. McGee, senior fellow for aviation and travel at the Washington, D.C.-based American Economic Liberties Project and the author of "Attention All Passengers," blamed what he called "weak government oversight of aviation safety," which he said has worsened in recent years.

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"There is still much that we don't know about what happened on that aircraft," said McGee.

A Greek hospital official told The Associated Press that the 61-year-old passenger was treated for neck and shoulder injuries, as well as friction burns.

The passenger was identified as Serbian national Ljubisa Karović. Karović's wife, Svetlana Grković, told Serbian outlet Nova that she "immediately reacted and grabbed his legs."

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"I thought: 'If we die, we die together,'" said Grković.

Grković told Greek outlet ERT that her husband lost consciousness three times, the BBC reported.

"The girl who was sitting next to him was holding him by the hand," she said. "Three of us were pulling him back inside. The oxygen masks dropped and chaos broke out."

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"They put a suitcase against the window, but it was sucked out," she added.

A spokesperson from Ryanair confirmed the incident to Fox News Digital, noting that the passenger's window had "dislodged in-flight."

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The official also said that the aircraft landed safely, and that passengers returned to the terminal.

"One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki," the representative said.

"In order to minimize any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen, which departed Thessaloniki at 9:53 local [Friday] morning."

The Associated Press contributed reporting.