A preliminary U.S. National Transportation Safety Board report has detailed how a broken engine fan blade on a Ryanair flight last month sent debris slicing into the fuselage, shattering a cabin window and partially sucking a passenger's head and shoulders outside the aircraft.
The incident happened on Ryanair Flight 1879, operated by subsidiary Malta Air, shortly after it took off from Thessaloniki, Greece, on July 10 bound for Memmingen, Germany, carrying 149 passengers and six crew. According to the NTSB's preliminary findings, reported by CBS News, the No. 2 engine on the Boeing 737-800 suffered a fan blade separation, and fragments struck the fuselage and the row 11 window.
The 61-year-old man seated in 11F, a Serbian national, was pulled back into the cabin by his wife and a flight attendant after being partially sucked through the opening; he suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns. A doctor traveling on the flight treated him, while other passengers used a metal box to help block the breach. Four passengers in total were taken to hospital as a precaution after the plane made an emergency return to Thessaloniki; most were examined and released.
Investigators said they found bird remains, including feathers, inside the failed engine, and have sent samples to the Smithsonian Institution to identify the species — though they cautioned it remains unclear whether the remains came from the July 10 flight or an earlier strike. The NTSB also said it detected signs of metal fatigue at the base of the broken fan blade despite ultrasonic inspections in November 2025 and May 2026 that found no damage. Crews had reported four suspected bird strikes to the same engine over the previous year, with remains confirmed in two of them.
Ryanair said the flight "returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight" and that a replacement aircraft later flew passengers on to Memmingen. As an Irish carrier, Ryanair falls under European rather than U.S. regulatory oversight; a related engine-inspection mandate for American operators, with a 2028 compliance deadline, did not apply to the aircraft involved.
The NTSB's report is preliminary, and a full investigation into the failure's cause — including whether repeated bird strikes contributed to the fatigue crack — is continuing.
