Serbian Ljubiša Karović, who was injured during the decompression of a plane that took off from Thessaloniki on Friday, July 10, is recovering slowly and is still in hospital, but does not remember most of the events of that day, Serbian media reported, quoted by BTA.
Karović was injured when a window of a plane on the Thessaloniki - Munich route, which he was sitting next to, broke, as the strong decompression pulled him out of the plane. The incident occurred about 40 minutes after takeoff, and the man is currently hospitalized in a medical facility in Thessaloniki, where he is accompanied by his wife Svetlana Maksimović. The couple from Vrnjačka Banja in central Serbia was on her way to a birthday party in Germany.
"Suddenly there was a huge noise. The masks fell off, there was chaos, I saw my husband hanging out of the window. (...) His right shoulder and head were outside the plane. The glass and the surrounding area were broken", Svetlana Maksimovic told the BBC in Serbian by phone.
She added that the girl sitting next to Ljubisa held the man's hand while Svetlana tried to pull her husband out of the seat at the back, where she had been. Another passenger later came to her aid, and according to Svetlana, the plane was full of young people and children.
"We pulled him out together. His whole face was deformed, there was blood on his nose and mouth", Svetlana said, adding that in the commotion she forgot to put on her mask, which made her feel sick.
Immediately after landing back in Thessaloniki, Ljubiša Karović was taken to hospital. His wife says she was not sure her husband would survive the half-hour flight.
The airline Ryanair confirmed in a written response to the BBC Serbian that their plane had returned to Thessaloniki shortly after takeoff when the passenger-side window had "moved" during the flight.
“The plane landed normally and the passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance upon landing in Thessaloniki,“ the company said, adding that in order to minimize the delay, a replacement plane had been arranged to transport the passengers to their destination.
Svetlana Maksimovic says no one from the airline has contacted her. She and her husband have flown frequently and over longer distances before.
“I wasn't scared for a second this time during takeoff, but now the question is whether we'll ever get on a plane,“ she says.