Ryanair emergency landing in Greece after passenger 'partially sucked out of window'

A window on the aircraft becoming "dislodged" is believed to have caused the terrifying sequence.

A Ryanair passenger was reportedly partially sucked out of a plane window which shattered in mid-air.

The incident involved a Boeing 737-800 aircraft which departed the Greek city Thessaloniki at 6.01am local time on Friday, bound for Memmingen, Germany.

Local media in Greece reported the victim was a Serbian man aged in his 60s, whose head was sucked out of the window.

Other passengers were able to pull him back into the cabin after several minutes, according to reports, which also stated the window was shattered when an engine part broke off.

Footage of the aftermath of the incident from inside the cabin obtained by Radio Thessaloniki in Greece shows the shattered window and released oxygen masks.

Ryanair said in a statement: “A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight.

“The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal.

“One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki.” Flight tracking website Flightrader24 shows the plane began to turn around after about 22 minutes in the air.

It then burned fuel at low altitude for about half-an-hour before landing one hour and 15 minutes after take-off.

The plane has Ryanair livery but was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of the Irish company.

A replacement aircraft departed Thessaloniki at 9.53am local time.