U.S. aviation safety investigators announced Thursday they are taking over the probe into a Ryanair flight from that left passengers scrambling minutes after takeoff, when a window dislodged and before being pulled back inside.
The National Transportation Safety Board said that after taking a closer look at the plane’s flight path, investigators determined the incident occurred in Greek airspace, and not over the Republic of North Macedonia as they initially believed.
International aviation rules allow Greece鈥檚 Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority to hand the investigation over to the NTSB. The U.S. federal agency said it accepted and is now leading the probe, with Greece participating.
The incident happened on July 10 on a morning flight from the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki to Memmingen, near Munich. The flight was operated by Malta Air, a subsidiary of , Europe鈥檚 largest budget carrier.
The 61-year-old passenger, who was not identified by name, suffered neck and shoulder injuries and friction burns, according to a Greek hospital official. It was not immediately clear Thursday if the injured passenger remained hospitalized.
The NTSB previously said it was notified that the flight turned back because of 鈥渁 right engine issue and cabin decompression.鈥�
Ryanair has not publicly addressed the engine issue disclosed by the NTSB. In response to an emailed request for comment about the engine issue on July 10, the airline reiterated its previous statement about the flight returning to Thessaloniki after a window became dislodged.
Passengers told Greek media that they heard a loud bang, oxygen masks dropped and the plane began to lose altitude.
A series of short videos recorded from inside the plane and shared by Radio Thessaloniki showed passengers wearing oxygen masks after the cabin lost pressure. Another appeared to show the blown-out window, with a man seated nearby wearing an oxygen mask. A third video, apparently filmed after the aircraft landed, showed first responders working in the aisle.
Shye Gilad, a former airline captain who teaches at Georgetown University鈥檚 business school in the U.S., said the window blowing out would have caused rapid decompression 鈥� a sudden loss of cabin pressure that can create a brief but powerful suction effect near the opening before the pressure stabilizes.
鈥淭he seat belt can help in those first few seconds. It鈥檚 a difference maker and people should keep their seat belts fastened at all times,鈥� Gilad said, adding that events such as this one are 鈥渧ery rare鈥� because 鈥渋t takes a lot to breach a cabin.鈥�
Flight records show the aircraft 鈥� a 737-800 delivered new to Ryanair in 2008 鈥� had been climbing past 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) about six minutes after departure before immediately descending to about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters). Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 said the aircraft remained at the lower altitude for roughly 30 minutes to burn fuel before returning to Thessaloniki about an hour after takeoff.
Ryanair said in its statement that one passenger requested and received medical care after landing, and that a replacement aircraft later flew passengers to .
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