A preliminary NTSB finding has tied the July incident on a Malta Air Boeing 737-800 operating for Ryanair to a fan blade failure in the right engine, which sent debris into the fuselage and shattered a cabin window near row 11 after takeoff from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. The passenger seated in 11F was partly pulled into the broken opening before others dragged him back inside, and the aircraft returned to Thessaloniki after the emergency.
The development shifts the likely sequence away from a broad cabin depressurisation event and toward a mechanical failure with debris impact. That distinction is important for inspections of both engine components and cabin-window integrity on the 737-800 fleet.
Media reports identified the passenger as Ljubiša Karović and described serious neck and shoulder injuries, with the man reportedly in shock after the event. One investigative thread points to bird-strike evidence in the engine, but that remains part of the ongoing inquiry rather than a final finding. The NTSB report remains preliminary, and the causal chain may change as investigators continue their work.