Bird remains found in engine after man nearly sucked out of window on Ryanair flight


⁠Bird remains were found ⁠in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window shortly after take-off from Greece in July, the US National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.

The NTSB ‌is investigating the incident where a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window. The plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and was forced to make an emergency landing.

The NTSB said in its preliminary report into the July 10 incident that four suspected bird strikes to the ⁠plane’s No 2 engine were reported by flight crew in the 12 months preceding the accident.

“Bird ‌remains were reportedly found in two of the cases,” although no damage was located during subsequent maintenance, it said.

The NTSB said the ‌CFM engine made by a venture between France’s Safran and US-based General ⁠Electric had been inspected ⁠in May with no findings.

Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic, the wife of the Ryanair passenger partially sucked out of a broken window, stands in front of the hospital where her husband was taken in Thessaloniki, Greece, in July. Photo: Reuters
Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic, the wife of the Ryanair passenger partially sucked out of a broken window, stands in front of the hospital where her husband was taken in Thessaloniki, Greece, in July. Photo: Reuters

Boeing and Ryanair declined to comment on Thursday. GE and Safran were not ‌immediately available for comment.