Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has rejected claims that a passenger was partly sucked out of a broken window on a Malta Air flight from Thessaloniki to Germany in July, saying the airline will contest that version of events while investigators continue to examine the incident. The dispute centres on a serious in-flight injury involving a shattered window, with Ryanair awaiting the National Transportation Safety Board’s findings before addressing any liability or claims handling.
The passenger, identified in coverage as 61-year-old Ljubisa Karović of Serbia, was injured after the aircraft window failed during the flight. O’Leary made his remarks in Dublin after Ryanair’s annual general meeting, where he insisted the passenger was pulled towards the damaged window but not outside the aircraft.
Public reporting on the episode has already been shaped by competing descriptions from the passenger’s lawyer and investigators. Preliminary findings cited by Reuters and AP describe Karović as being partially lodged in the window opening before fellow passengers pulled him back into the cabin, a detail that narrows but does not resolve the dispute over how far his body exited the aircraft. The underlying cause of the window failure remains under investigation.