Washington: Engine fragments struck a window of a Ryanair plane last month resulting in a man nearly being sucked out of the aircraft mid-flight, according to a preliminary report published Thursday by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
A tourist on a flight from Thessaloniki in Greece to Memmingen in Germany on July 16 had his head lodged in a cabin window that had broken off as a result of the breach and had to be pulled back inside by other passengers.
NTSB said in a preliminary investigation report that the jet's right engine experienced a "fan-blade-out failure" during ascent, meaning a blade in the engine fan broke off.
"Engine fragments breached the fuselage and the cabin depressurized," the report said.
A flight attendant saw that a passenger "was partially lodged in a damaged cabin window, and that the entire window was missing," it continued.
The passenger sustained serious injuries, according to the report.
Investigators said they found bird remains inside the engine but did not draw any conclusions on why the fan blade broke.
Recounting the incident, a passenger told Radio Thessaloniki that "there was a noise, like a tyre bursting."
"We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams... for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door," the woman said.
Engine fragments also damaged other parts of the fuselage and the right horizontal stabilizer, the NTSB said.
The full NTSB investigation, which can take up to two years, is under way and a final report remains pending.
The full investigation will take a year to two years to complete, according to the NTSB.
A representative with Ryanair declined to comment until the investigation is completed. A Boeing representative said it would continue to support the inquiry conducted by the NTSB.
Flight attendants had prepared for cabin service on July 10 when they heard and felt a “loud continuous vibration,” investigators said. They also reported a “small” amount of fog and smoke.
Passengers grabbed their oxygen masks when the crew noticed people standing and asking for help. The man was partly pulled outside before others pulled him to safety.
One passenger retrieved a metal box to cover the broken window. A doctor, another passenger aboard, treated the man, investigators said.
The engine’s fan blades had broken and struck the plane’s fuselage and another portion of the plane. The blade shattered the passenger’s window in Row 11 and damaged the plane’s exterior, investigators said.
The captain, who was not identified, had tallied 8,270 flight hours. A majority of flight time was spent with an aircraft the same make and model as the Ryanair plane at the center of the aviation inquiry, according to the report, and aviation tracking sites said the aircraft had been flying since 2008.
The engine’s fan blades had been inspected most recently in May, and employees did not flag any findings, according to the report.
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