I’m the ‘lucky’ man who got sucked out a plane window and lived; one detail keeps me up at night

In a terrifying moment straight out of a horror film, dad and husband Ljubisa Karović was sucked out of a plane window mid-flight.

What should have been a routine flight from Greece to Germany spiralled into a horrifying situation for Ljubisa Karović and his wife, Svetlana. Though the circumstances of the accident are still under investigation, for some reason, the circular window exploded during the Ryanair flight.

“A Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen on Friday morning (July 10) returned to Thessaloniki shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight. The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal,” the airline confirmed.

Πτήση θρίλερ από το «Μακεδονία» της #Θεσσαλονίκης– Έσπασε παράθυρο την ώρα της πτήσης, τραυματίστηκε επιβάτης – Διαβάστε περισσότερα: https://t.co/iUtFwCy2Ks pic.twitter.com/Ue88WkCcIF

— Rthess.gr (@RThessaloniki) July 10, 2026

“One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki. In order to minimise any delay, a replacement aircraft was arranged to bring passengers to Memmingen which departed Thessaloniki at 9.53am local this morning.”

That passenger was Ljubisa, who was sucked partially out of the window as oxygen masks descended amidst the chaos. As people rushed to aid the man, who is from Serbia, his wife watched from three rows behind. Before long, she too was holding onto him with dear life.

“I rushed over too. None of the cabin crew helped. It was the passengers,” she recalled in a new interview with The Guardian. “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.”

For around two minutes, all she could see was her husband “half in and out of the plane.”

Credit: Facebook

11 days later, Ljubisa Karović is back home and recovering

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The Guardian were able to interview Ljubisa Karović about four days after he was discharged from the hospital with grisly injuries. Said injuries included substantial burns and bruises on the right side of his body, a swollen face, and many sleepless nights.

“I am lucky,” he told the publication after his plane encounter. “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.”

His wife later told him that he’d fainted twice in the plane after being brought back inside, with his lawyer arguing that he “dipped in and out of death.”

“He looked at death, that other world, and came back,” he added.

Though he thankfully doesn’t remember much of the ordeal, there’s one moment that has prevented Ljubisa from sleeping properly.

He explained: “The explosion is what I remember. It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.”

His recovery is now looking like a long one, as doctors have told him to wear a neck brace for the next six weeks. After that, they’ll assess whether he needs surgery.

In one final message, he urged: “Always make sure to wear your seatbelt. I don’t want anyone to suffer what happened to me.”

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Featured image credit: Facebook/Canva