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"An Albanian did the impossible", the dramatic story of the passenger who was "sucked" out of the window of the Ryanair plane: The crew was in a state of shock, they didn't help us!

2026-07-22 12:26:33Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

"An Albanian did the impossible", the dramatic story of the passenger

It's the explosion, just before he was almost pulled off the plane, that Ljubisa Karovic remembers. The deafening sound of the window shattering, which woke him from his sleep in window seat 11F on the morning Ryanair flight from Greece to Germany.

11 days and nights later, it remains the entrance "towards chaos, catastrophe" that continues to keep him awake at night.

“The explosion is what I remember,” the Serbian entrepreneur says in an interview with the Guardian.

With his head resting on his neck and his eyes staring into the distance, he adds: “It is the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there every time I close my eyes to sleep.”

The pain still haunts Ljubisa Karovic, and it's easy to see why. The severe burns and bruises on his right arm, which extend to his armpit and chest, are testament to a fact few will forget: The 61-year-old was sucked out of a plane window that broke off during flight, under circumstances that are still under investigation, and he survived.

“I’m lucky,” he says with obvious understatement, as he swatts a fly away on the veranda of the modest villa he has rented in Katerini, a developing seaside resort near Thessaloniki.

"I don't remember much and my head and neck still hurt, but I'm still alive. It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it was fate. I believe in God and I thank him every day."

It has been barely 100 hours since Karovic was released from the hospital. The shock, he says, was overwhelming, but the fact that he can tell this story is nothing short of a miracle. His Greek lawyer, Vasilis Tsiaras, describes the slender, powerful father of two as “someone who is alive by mistake.”

He says that Karovic was heading to Germany to celebrate his brother's birthday when he ended up with his head and arm outside the plane, while the latter was moving at a speed of 600 km/h.

"He saw death, that other world, and he returned," says Tsiaras.

Passengers on flight FR1879, including Karovic's wife, Svetlana, sitting in seat 14C, three rows behind her husband, still have vivid memories of the moment the window shattered, oxygen masks fell off, the chaos that followed as bottles and other objects flew through the air and other passengers grabbed Ljubisa, desperately trying to hold her in place.

“I ran towards him too. None of the cabin crew helped. It was the passengers,” she says. “A man, I think he was Albanian, was extraordinary. He did everything he could to pull him inside and then tried to block the window, first with a bag which was sucked out immediately and then with a suitcase, which worked. We will be eternally grateful to him.”

The unbearable moments when she saw her husband "half in and half out of the plane" are thought to have lasted between a minute and a half and two minutes.

“They tell me that I lost consciousness twice and again inside the plane, and that my face was swollen and deformed for a while because of the pressure, the momentum of the air,” Karovic says in his calm voice. “My wife reminds me of that.”

Ryanair has defended the performance of the staff, saying the cabin crew did a “phenomenal job.” Tsiaras, the lawyer, disagrees. He says that while Karovic’s son, Danjell, who had booked the flight, was contacted by the company, neither Ljubisa nor Svetlana were called and received no help or support.

“We have no complaints against the pilot, who followed safety protocols and managed the situation very well,” Tsiaras adds, referring to the rapid descent that must be performed in the event the plane loses cabin pressure.

"My client fainted two or three times, once outside the plane when he was partially sucked out the window and twice inside, when he again lost consciousness. At no point did the cabin crew offer assistance."

Ryanair disputed this claim, saying that during the process of depressurization and rapid descent to a lower altitude, all passengers and cabin crew members must fasten their seatbelts and put on their oxygen masks.

“Once the aircraft descended to a safe altitude, our cabin crew approached and provided assistance to Mr Karovic, moving him to other seats (near his wife) and arranged for an on-board doctor to remain with them until the aircraft landed safely back in Thessaloniki. They also arranged for medical assistance to be on standby after landing in Thessaloniki,” the airline said in a statement to the Guardian.

Referring to witness testimony, Tsiaras claimed that the cabin crew personnel were paralyzed with fear, perhaps due to the belief that, with the dramatic loss of altitude, the plane was close to crashing.

“Everyone agreed that the crew was in a state of shock, afraid that the plane was going to crash. It was the other passengers who gathered around Ljubisa and gave her water,” he says.
The owner of a Serbian-based aluminum factory that has exported goods to various countries around the world for years, Karovic, a frequent flyer, recoils in horror at the thought of flying again.

Doctors have warned him that recovery will be slow, ordering him to wear a neck brace for at least six weeks, after which they will determine whether surgery is needed. 

“There are images that come back to me, the sound of the explosion, the chaos, but I want to heal,” he says. “And, yes, there should be compensation. Not just emails that are focused on changing the flight reservation.”

Asked if he has a message he wants to convey, he allows himself to smile. "Always make sure you wear your seatbelt. I don't want anyone to suffer what happened to me."/The Guardian


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