Just ten minutes after takeoff, a Boeing 737’s jet engine broke apart and sent debris slamming into the fuselage, shattering a passenger window and nearly pulling a man out of the aircraft thousands of feet above the ground.
Ljubisa Karović, 61, was seated in window seat 11F when the engine failure occurred on a July 10 flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. According to a report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Karović was partially sucked out of the plane before his wife and fellow passengers grabbed him and pulled his head and shoulders back inside.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737 with a CFM International CFM56-7B26 engine, returned to Greece for an emergency landing shortly after the midair disaster. There were two pilots, four flight attendants, and 149 passengers on board.
Karovic, who survived the ordeal, said in a statement that he remembers little of the incident. “I don’t remember much and my head and neck still hurt but I am still alive. It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it is fate. I believe in God and I thank him every day,” he said.
His wife, seated three rows behind in 14C, recounted rushing forward as the window broke. “I rushed over too. None of the cabin crew helped. It was the passengers,” she told reporters. “One man, I think he was an Albanian, was incredible. He did all he could to bring him in and then tried to block the window, first with a bag that was immediately sucked out and then with a suitcase, which worked. We are eternally grateful to him.”
The NTSB report detailed the sequence of events: pilots received a high engine vibration warning just minutes before the engine failed. About two minutes later, they “heard a loud bang” and lost autopilot capability. The subsequent examination revealed that the No. 2 engine experienced a fan blade separation, and the resulting fragments struck both the fuselage and the right horizontal stabilizer.
Bird Remains Found, But Cause Unclear
The report also noted that bird remains were discovered in the engine, though investigators could not determine whether the birds were ingested immediately before the failure or during an earlier, separate incident. The NTSB continues to analyze the evidence.
This incident echoes a 2018 Southwest Airlines tragedy involving the same engine model. In that case, a fan blade failure shattered a window and partially pulled passenger Jennifer Riordan outside the aircraft. Despite passengers’ efforts to bring her back inside, Riordan died from blunt force trauma.
Karović’s survival was credited to his seatbelt and the quick actions of those around him. “I always wear my seatbelt, even when the sign is off,” he told reporters. “It saved my life.”
The NTSB report underscores ongoing concerns about CFM56 engine reliability, which have been scrutinized since the 2018 incident. The FAA has previously mandated inspections and modifications to reduce the risk of fan blade failures.
Investigators are expected to release a final report after completing a thorough review of maintenance records, engine performance data, and bird strike analysis.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/passenger-saved-from-getting-sucked-out-of-plane-after-midair-disaster