A 61-year-old Serbian man was almost sucked out of a Ryanair flight after a piece of the plane’s engine broke off and struck a window on the Boeing 737-800, causing it to shatter. 

The man’s wife and other passengers pinned the man to his seat for five minutes as his “head and shoulders” were hanging outside the plane, which had left Greece’s Macedonia airport for Germany at 5:55 a.m. CNN Greece reports. 

“The plane window broke and his wife held him for 5 minutes from the feet so that he would not leave. With the help of many passengers, they managed to pull him into the cabin,” said trade union official, Michalis Giannakos, adding “the injured person is in shock and with friction burns.” 

Engine debris shattered a cabin window on a Ryanair Greece–Germany flight, nearly pulling a 61-year-old passenger out. She suffered friction burns. pic.twitter.com/cGh1Wwmoq3

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The window shattering sounded like “a tire bursting,” one passenger told Radio Thessaloniki, adding “We immediately realised there had been a decompression. There were screams … for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door.”

“The masks dropped and there was a strong smell. The head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window. Fortunately, he hadn’t taken off his seat belt.”

BREAKING: Ryanair passenger reportedly saved from being sucked out the cabin after window fails during a flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen.

According to local media Ryanair flight FR1879, a Boeing 737-8AS, returned safely to Greece on Friday after part of a damaged engine… pic.twitter.com/YPgRodjPFp

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“A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memingen on Friday morning (10 July) returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window detached on the fly. The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” the airline said in a statement cited by ENIKOS. 

“One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki,” the statement continues. “In order not to be long overdue, an aircraft was mobilized to transport the passengers to Memingen, which departed Thessaloniki at 9:35 local time this morning.”