Ryanair passenger sucked toward broken window after midair engine failure

https://simpleflying.com/ryanair-thessaloniki-diversion-window-damage/

by amelius • 12 days ago

80 69 12 days ago

simpleflying.com

pfdietz4• 12 days ago

This is one reason to always be wearing your seat belt tightly when flying.

hulitu• 12 days ago

Common, it never happened to me. /s

pfdietz4• 12 days ago

"Low probability very high consequence situation has never happened to me, therefore I needn't do anything." -- someone who doesn't understand expectation in probability.

root-parent3• 12 days ago

Because its a Ryanair flight?

pfdietz4• 12 days ago

Peanuts99• 12 days ago

Ryanair has a pretty high safety record, they fly modern, well maintained planes because their margins are lower and they make them up in volume.

culopatin• 12 days ago

I wonder if Ryanair is going to charge them for being oversized to fit through their designated window.

root-parent3• 12 days ago

Window seat: €12.99

Epa095• 12 days ago

They will start charging extra for getting to not sit by a window.

tonyedgecombe• 12 days ago

Window: €12.99 extra.

flutas• 12 days ago

Extremely similar to Southwest flight 1380 which killed a person in the US after they were partially sucked out of a broken window from an engine failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380

w4der• 12 days ago

And both were Boeing 737s ... (albeit different variants)

insane_dreamer• 12 days ago

The Alaska Airlines flight that had a door fall off was also a Boeing 737

bombcar4• 12 days ago

This would all be solved if the engines were out in front of the plane like podracers.

burnt-resistor2• 11 days ago

That wouldn't work because the Cg would be too far forward and the mechanical moment of pylons would be far too great. What needs to happen is proper redesign of the CFM56-7B engine cowl to contain fan, LP, and HP failures.

burnt-resistor2• 11 days ago

The CFM56 cowl redesign to prevent fan blade off uncontained failure is still unfixed. The FAA gave Boeing/CFM an unreasonable amount of time (July 31, 2028) to address the issue. This is similar to the bungled handling of MCAS.

niwtsol2• 12 days ago

I thought that the speed of the air moving outside of the plane had a bigger impact on the pressure imbalance that causes someone to be "sucked out" of plane. It appears that is a false belief, the inside/outside pressure difference is from the artificial pressurization of the internal cabin. I blame a high school physics teacher for the memorable "why does a soft top convertible poof out when driving fast?" question as a preamble to explaining bernoulli for my false assumption.

SwiftyBug• 12 days ago

I learned about the artificial pressurization not too long ago. But until I read your comment, I assumed that in a case like that, the inside and outside pressures would balance shortly and the sucking would cease. Now it occurred to me that maybe the pressurization system will continue to try to compensate pressure in a situation where pressure can´t be stabilized due to a broken window, which would cause the sucking to go on. Not sure if that would be the case. Anyone knows what happens?

niwtsol2• 12 days ago

I believe standard protocol is for the pilot to reduce altitude until they are at a pressure that is fine to be at (<10k feet). Then they can make an emergency landing plan (or burn off fuel as in this case)

root-parent3• 12 days ago

R.Y.A.N.A.I.R. — Remove Yourself And Never Ask If Refunded

bombcar4• 12 days ago

£5 and we’ll drop you off at home before we land! Save the trip back from the airport.

Banania• 12 days ago

From https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgk65knkyzdo Media reports in Greece and Germany quoted passengers describing a loud bang followed by the window breaking and oxygen masks falling from the ceiling shortly after the Boeing 737 had taken off.

They believe the window was smashed by pieces of the jet's engine - although Ryanair has not commented on this.

zh3• 12 days ago

First place to look when this sort of thing happens is pprune.org - lots of pilots on there, often with specific knowledge of the aircraft type and/or of the incident itself.

In this case: https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/672872-ryanair-...

mysterydip• 12 days ago

That top reply made me laugh out loud:

“>Glad it turned out well.

Wonder what the Ryanair social media team is going to do with this one

Ryanair introducing new additional charge to have a window.”

clickety_clack2• 12 days ago

Well, this isn’t very typical, I’d like to make that point.

Look, the windows not supposed to fall off, for a start. These things are built to rigorous aeronautical engineering standards — cardboard’s out, cardboard derivatives, no cellotape, no string. So chance in a million, really.

And to be clear, the plane that the window fell off was flown to safety. So there’s nothing out there but birds, air, wind and clouds… and the window that fell off.

bombcar4• 12 days ago

The plane was towed outside the atmosphere.

anaidioschrono• 12 days ago

The (hilarious) reference: https://youtu.be/3m5qxZm_JqM

RetroTechie• 12 days ago

The window didn't "fall off". In article's 1st paragraph:

"debris from a dramatic engine failure caused damage to the aircraft's window"

That's high-velocity pieces of metal. Hard to prevent that from shattering a window if engine housing didn't catch it.

How much stronger, thicker & heavier you want to make those windows? Costing how much more fuel? To save how many lives per year?

I'd think airplane builders (note: not airlines!) are more qualified to make that calculation than armchair safety 'experts'.

clickety_clack2• 12 days ago

Well there are a lot of these airplanes going around the world all the time, and very seldom does anything like this happen. I just don’t want people thinking that airplanes aren’t safe.

SirFatty• 12 days ago

whoosh..

dingaling• 12 days ago

Fan and turbine failures are supposed to be contained by the engine casing - it's part of certification. But as we see here, uncontained failures do occur. In general "airplane builders" do the absolute minimum to meet certification so they're not going to add reinforcement to protect against such an event until they're forced Into doing so by the authorities.

Turboprops can't, of course, contain a propellor failure which is why they have a big slab of armour in line with the prop disk. So in that case, yes, safety wins over cost and weight.

IAmBroom3• 12 days ago

The comment you are replying to is a reference to a famous comedy skit (about the whole front of an oceanliner falling off, and the official company response).

ithkuil• 12 days ago

I just want to make the point that this is not normal

Fire-Dragon-DoL• 5 days ago

Yes, but still the person was for 2 minutes with their chest out of the window, held by their legs

comrade1234• 12 days ago

Would it be strange to not have any windows on a plane? You could put thin oled panels on the wall instead. Seems like that would be more structurally sound.

NBJack• 12 days ago

I suspect you'd lose the sense of depth that helps make the plane feel less small. There's also a safety factor for situational awareness; many carriers require shades to be open for the cabin crew to figure out the safest side to evacuate on in an emergency.

bombcar4• 12 days ago

You could do something with mirrors, but the safety cards reference looking out the windows before opening the emergency doors, so I bet you need at least SOME.

lawlorino• 12 days ago

I could see this being a safety issue if there’s a problem with the wing or engine and the panels fail, so zero visibility. Its why they ask you to open the window blinds during take off and landing

fian• 12 days ago

It's also so that rescue personnel can see into the plane in the event it crashes.

AnimalMuppet2• 12 days ago

I like to be able to look out the window, especially when we hit rough air. Seeing the fixed external reference helps me, for whatever reason.

onionisafruit3• 12 days ago

Presumably for the same reason looking out the windshield helps with car sickness.

rediguanayum• 12 days ago

Good photo of the broken window in Aviation Herald: https://avherald.com/h?article=53ba2a01&opt=0

More discussion in: Airliners.net: https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1510797&...

dhosek• 12 days ago

That photo ws in the main article as well.

consumer451• 12 days ago

Lesson learned for Ryanair leadership: charge more for seats not in range of debris from uncontained turbine failures.

Seriously though, as an aviation geek, I always avoid those seats when given a choice.

weinzierl• 12 days ago

Seats near the engine are loud, so two birds, one stone.

AnimalMuppet2• 12 days ago

Serious question: Which seats are the ones that are in range? Just in front of the wing, or just behind it?

thebruce87m• 11 days ago

Aren’t seats near the window the most structurally sound due to the wing supports? They are also near the exits for a quick exit.

skrebbel• 12 days ago

A report in a Hungarian publication claims, "A passenger was sucked into the window by the change in air pressure, with the 61-year-old man's head sticking out of the plane. Witnesses say his wife grabbed him, which was the reason he wasn't pulled out of the plane by the lower air pressure outside." [translation by Google]

Points for the wife!

(from https://www.pprune.org/accidents-close-calls/672872-ryanair-...)

euroderf• 11 days ago

In the olden days, if someone saved your life, you owed them a year of free service.

So this guy should be ready for a year of TOTAL housework dedication.

lokar• 12 days ago

He was pushed, not sucked. Pressure never sucks.

onionisafruit3• 12 days ago

edit: Never mind me. I think I was wrong about this.

Colloquially speaking, it sucks. It’s like saying vacuum cleaners technically blow. It might be true but everybody knows it as sucking.

IAmBroom3• 12 days ago

Counterpoint: peer pressure.

Checkmate, science!

lambdadelirium• 12 days ago

SUCTION

NordStreamYacht• 12 days ago

Boeing 737

drcongo• 12 days ago

On a Boeing? No way!

childintime• 12 days ago

Alternate title: Boeing 737 passenger sucked toward broken window after midair engine failure.

Or else: Ryanair Boeing 737 passenger sucked toward broken window after midair engine failure.

Ryanair passenger sucked toward broken window after midair engine failure

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