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LONDON — The CEO of Ryanair on Thursday disputed that a passenger injured during a flight on one of its planes in July was partly sucked out a broken window.
Ljubisa Karovic injured his neck and shoulder and had friction burns after the window shattered shortly after takeoff on a flight from northern Greece to Germany on July 10.
Karovic’s wife and witnesses said the pressure drop caused his head and shoulders to be pulled out the window. His wife said she held onto his legs and other passengers helped pull him back in the jet.
Airline chief Michael O’Leary acknowledged Karovic was injured and was entitled to compensation but not “millions and millions.”
READ MORE | Broken engine parts shattered Ryanair plane window that passenger’s head got sucked into: NTSB
“He wasn’t partially out the window,” O’Leary said after the Irish budget airline’s annual general meeting in Dublin. “We don’t think any part of his body got out the window, but he was certainly sucked in very dramatic circumstances towards the window.”
Karovic had a seat belt on at the time. Passengers intervened and a metal box provided by flight attendants was used to block the missing window.
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The window shattered after being struck by fragments from a broken fan blade in the Boeing 737-800’s right engine that damaged the fuselage and other parts of the plane, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report.
Flight attendants told investigators they heard and felt a loud, continuous vibration and saw smoke or fog fill the cabin before oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling.
The plane returned safely to Greece.
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