I was sucked out of a Ryanair plane window at 15,000ft, the crew did nothing while my wife saved my life… then all I heard from the airline was an email asking if I wanted to rebook
As Ljubisa Karovic sat back in his window seat on Ryanair flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, he fastened his seat belt and, as he often does during flights, quickly drifted off to sleep.
After a relaxing holiday in the Greek sun, he was looking forward to arriving in the city in the south of Germany where he would be a guest at a surprise birthday party for his younger brother.
But 20 minutes into his nap, as the ascending Boeing 737 jet reached an altitude of 15,000ft, travelling at a ground speed approaching 500 miles per hour, Ljubisa’s whole world exploded – almost literally.
The calm of his doze was shattered by an ear-splitting bang, which he recalls as sounding like a bomb going off, as that window to his right suddenly shattered into shards.
The sudden and intense cabin decompression that ensued saw Ljubisa being sucked out of seat 11F into the gaping hole which the shattered window had left behind.
Within moments, his right shoulder, arm and head were outside the plane, his senses battered by the change in air pressure, which he now likens to being repeatedly punched by a heavyweight boxer.
Almost immediately oxygen masks across the cabin dropped – a protocol so frequently described in mandatory safety drills but rarely seen – and passengers across the jet screamed.
But amid the uproar and panic, one passenger acted decisively: Ljubisa’s horrified wife Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic.
Ljubisa Karovic was partially sucked out of the window of his Ryanair flight when a piece of engine debris smashed it at 15,000ft leaving his head outside the gaping hole
Mr Karovic was sitting next to his wife Svetlana Grkovic Maksimovic, who grabbed his legs and tried with other passengers to pull him back into the plane
The broken window of Ryanair flight FR1879 from Thessaloniki to Memmingen, which forced the plane into an emergency landing
Medics arrive on the plane after it landed – as Ljubisa had suffered burns from the high-speed winds lashing his torso
She was seated in 14C, an aisle seat three rows behind her husband – they had decided against paying the €30 (£25.6) supplement it would have cost to sit together – and had witnessed her husband begin to disappear through the broken window.
Without thinking, Svetlana sprang to her feet, lunged forward and grabbed Ljubisa’s legs.
Her decisiveness inspired other passengers around them to join her in desperately holding onto her husband to stop him from being sucked out altogether, and falling thousands of feet to his death.
It is believed the struggle to hold on to him lasted for up to two minutes.
The incident, rarely witnessed in aviation history – and Ljubisa’s miraculous survival on that flight on July 10 – made headlines around the world, and has left investigators desperately trying to establish exactly what led to the window being blown out.
But, largely thanks to his wife, Ljubisa survived. After spending six days in a Greek hospital, he is recovering in a seaside villa in Katerini, just outside Thessaloniki, where that fateful flight had embarked from.
And today, after two weeks gathering his thoughts and piecing together his shattered memories, Ljubisa gives his fullest account to date of what happened, in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail.
Speaking about his ordeal, Ljubisa, 61, said: ‘I only remember hearing the explosion, not much else. I can remember sitting in my seat and was looking forward to seeing my brother because the whole family was getting together to surprise him for his 60th birthday.
‘I fell asleep quite quickly as I usually do on flights. Then there was this deafening explosion, which startled me.’
Witnesses describe him as dangling diagonally out of the aircraft ‘like Superman flying through the air’, as the wind lashed his face, contorting it out of shape as if he was a cartoon character.
Sounding remarkably calm, he admitted he has no memory of this.
‘I don’t remember anything at all because I immediately passed out,’ he said. ‘But the whole thing has been like a nightmare. I can’t even sleep at night, all I can hear when I close my eyes is the sound of an explosion and then there is chaos in my head.
‘I lost consciousness when I was hanging out of the plane and then they tell me that I fainted three more times after I was dragged back in. My face was swollen, and my ear was like a giant doughnut.’
Ljubisa says he now suffers with acute neck and shoulder pain, and has to wear a neck brace for six weeks. Doctors have warned him that he may require an operation if the pain continues.
He was also treated for burns to his face and right hand and arm caused by the high velocity wind lashing his upper torso.
Ljubisa, a softly spoken Serbian national, said: ‘I am lucky because my injuries could have been a lot worse. I can’t tell you what was going through my mind when I was hanging outside the plane, but I am grateful that I am still here.
Svetlana said she was praying that her husband would be saved as he dangled out of the window
The Serbian national must wear a neck brace for six weeks and suffers with acute neck and shoulder pain – he has been warned he may need an operation if this continues
‘Maybe it was the seatbelt that saved me, because I was still strapped in, and that gave an opportunity to my wife and the other passengers to hold onto me and pull me back inside. But maybe it is fate.’
He added: ‘I have always trusted in God but after this I trust him even more. He has given me the chance of a second life.’
It is his wife Svetlana, 48, who has the most vivid and disturbing memories of her husband’s near-death experience in the sky.
Shaking with emotion, she recalled how she heard a loud explosion followed by passengers screaming in fear as oxygen masks dropped, and then looked ahead to see Ljubisa ‘half in and half out’ of the plane.
She said: ‘I rushed over and immediately grabbed his left arm and legs while another female passenger was also helping me. We pulled him back in together.
‘It was very hard because I was pulling him with all my might from one side and there was this strong force pulling him away on the other. He was going back and forth and at one point, I felt that he was going to be sucked out completely.’
As the ‘tug of war’ to rescue Ljubisa continued, Svetlana admitted that she was not shouting or screaming, but just praying silently that he be saved.
She recalled: ‘His head was out of the plane, and I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I was too focused on holding onto him so didn’t shout or anything. But inside, I was praying with all my heart that he survives and I’m so happy that God answered my prayer.’
Svetlana revealed how one passenger, who she said was an Albanian man, played a particularly heroic role in dragging Mr Karovic back into the aircraft.
She said: ‘There was a woman seated next to my husband who was also helping but this man was big and strong. After bringing him back in he put a bag by the window to block it, but it was sucked out. Then he put a big suitcase over it, which worked.
‘I don’t know their names, but I am eternally grateful to them. May God protect them wherever they go. Without them, my husband would be dead.’
The couple, who divide their time living between Serbia and Greece, have been together for ten years and married for three.
Ljubisa, who has two sons from a previous relationship, is a successful businessman who runs an aluminium factory and a property company in Serbia, and also owns a 14-bedroom hotel in Katerini.
Following the ‘explosion’, which led to the sudden loss of air pressure inside the cabin, the Ryanair pilot immediately brought the aircraft to a safer altitude as cabin crew and passengers put on oxygen masks.
Once Ljubisa was hauled back in and the plane steadied, he was moved to another seat with Svetlana seated next to him.
He recalled that the first thing she said to him was to ask him if he was alright.
He added: ‘But I didn’t even have it in me to answer because I was in such shock. The first thing I remember after regaining consciousness was that I felt blood on my face and body.
‘I couldn’t speak to anyone, I just felt numb and didn’t understand what had happened and I’m still trying to make sense of it all.’
The Boeing 737 plane returned to Thessaloniki airport and was met by medical staff and an ambulance, which whisked Ljubisa off to hospital.
Ljubisa said he heard a loud bang ‘like a bomb’ as the jet’s window was shattered
A large hole can be seen in the side of the engine casing, after passengers feared they ‘wouldn’t make it’ as the jet flew for around 30 minutes with the damaged window
The couple are critical of the way in which Ryanair crew responded to the moment Ljubisa was sucked out of the plane, claiming that they remained strapped in their seats and failed to help as pandemonium ensued.
They have also criticised the airline for its conduct after the incident, claiming not a single official has been in touch with them.
Ljubisa said: ‘All we’ve had is emails to my son, who booked our flights, asking if we want to rebook and asking how I was. But nobody from the company has contacted me directly, not even a phone call to show any concern.’
Svetlana said: ‘When we were battling to hold onto Ljubisa, the crew didn’t do anything, they looked more scared than us. It was only the passengers who helped and were brave.
‘We are going to be dealing with the aftermath of this for a very long time, because it’s caused us a lot of psychological damage. But nobody from the airline has been in touch with either of us, which is disgusting.’
The couple are being represented by Greek lawyer Vasilis Tsiaras, who has vowed to secure ‘significant compensation’ for them.
He said: ‘My client came back from the brink of death, and we want to make sure that whoever is responsible for this is held accountable. It’s not just about compensation but about establishing the truth as to what happened and the condition of this aircraft.
‘There are also serious concerns about the conduct of the Ryanair crew. They were gripped by fear that the plane was about to crash which prevented them from doing anything to help Mr Karovic as he was hanging out of the aircraft.’
He added: ‘It seems that the crew were more interested in saving their own lives. It was only the actions of the passengers that saved my client.’
The incident is being investigated by the US National Transportation Safety Board which has already examined the aircraft and will issue a draft report in around 28 days.
But a technical adviser appointed by Ljubisa and Mr Tsiaras believes it began with a failure in the aircraft’s right engine, causing debris to strike and shatter the cabin window before the rapid loss of cabin pressure. That assessment has not been confirmed by investigators.
‘We welcome the appointment of the NTSB. They are going to do a full, independent investigation. We are participating fully. We have people on the ground actively involved in assisting.’
Ryanair told the Daily Mail that it is not making any comment while the incident is under investigation.
But in earlier responses issued to the media, the company insisted that its planes are safe and that they had been in contact with the family.
Neil Sorahan, Ryanair’s group chief financial officer, said: ‘Our customer care team have actively been in touch with the family since the incident. Our crew did a phenomenal job and got the aircraft back to Thessaloniki. Everyone bar none walked off the aircraft. It was a great job done by the cabin crew and the pilots.
‘We welcome the appointment of the NTSB. They are going to do a full, independent investigation. We are participating fully. We have people on the ground actively involved in assisting.’
After the plane landed, this photo was taken of the engine, with a blade seemingly missing
Prior to the incident, Ljubisa flew thousands of miles each year shuttling between his homes in Serbia and Greece to run his businesses
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary was reported as saying that the incident ‘looks like a foreign object damage to the engine on take-off at Thessaloniki but … we can’t say that definitively’.
He insisted that the engine on the 18-year-old Boeing 737 plane had been fully serviced and overhauled in the past two years.
The company also insisted in earlier denials following criticism of their conduct: ‘As soon as the aircraft descended to a safe altitude, our cabin crew attended to and assisted Mr Karovic, moving him to alternate seats [beside his wife] and arranged for a doctor onboard to sit with them until the aircraft landed safely back in Thessaloniki. They also arranged to have medical assistance standing by on landing in Thessaloniki.’
Prior to the incident, Ljubisa flew thousands of miles each year shuttling between his homes in Serbia and Greece to run his businesses.
Now, as he recovers at his beachside villa, still haunted by the horror of almost being ‘sucked to death’, he admitted that he cannot even think of boarding an airplane and some days even struggles to get out of bed.
Worried about the future, Ljubisa said: ‘This incident has completely turned my life upside down. I fear that I’ll never be able to live and work the way I used to.
‘I’m not able to go anywhere at the moment, and the thought of getting on a plane absolutely terrifies me. I want to recover and overcome this, because I once led a very happy and beautiful life, but I know that it’s going to take me a long time.’
Svetlana revealed that she has to travel to Serbia over the next few days, leaving her husband behind in Greece.
She admitted: ‘I’m going to go by car. It’s going to take a long time before I’ll be able to take a flight and am not sure if I ever will, but all I can say is if that ever happens, I’ll never sit in a window seat.’
