Southwest Airlines Window Blowout Similar To Ryanair’s As Fixes Lag Until 2028

A plane window should be one of the least noticeable parts of a flight. Passengers who prefer window seats often watch the process during takeoff. Others might close the shade. Many lean against the wall and try to sleep once the plane is in the air.

In fact, the most drama surrounding the window seat typically comes from airline etiquette disputes over who controls the shade.

But on a recent Ryanair flight from Greece to Germany, that ordinary piece of the cabin became the center of a terrifying emergency.

The aircraft had departed Thessaloniki for Memmingen on Friday morning when something went wrong early in the climb. Oxygen masks dropped, and the plane turned back. At the end of the ordeal, one passenger was taken to a hospital in shock and bleeding.

Ryanair Says A Passenger Window Dislodged In Flight

Ryanair Flight FR1879 was operating from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany. Ryanair said the plane returned to Thessaloniki after “a passenger window dislodged inflight.” Reuters reported that Flightradar24 data suggests the aircraft was a Boeing 737 NG, the generation before the 737 MAX.

The airline said the aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. But not before one passenger was partially sucked through the dislodged window up to his shoulders, with his wife holding on to his legs for dear life before others pulled him back into the cabin.

“His wife held onto his legs for around five minutes to stop him from being sucked out,” passenger Michalis Giannakos told the BBC.

The passenger who was partially sucked through the opening was a Serbian national. The Serbian consulate said he was transferred to AHEPA University General Hospital in Thessaloniki and, fortunately, did not have life-threatening injuries.

The Cause Is Being Investigated

Local media reported that a piece of the engine broke off and struck the window, causing the cabin to decompress. Reuters said two airport sources with knowledge of the incident shared the same conclusion.

“We immediately realized there had been a decompression. There were screams… for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door,” Christina, a fellow passenger, told Radio Thessaloniki per the BBC. “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.”

The outlet reported that video posted on social media appeared to show fan blades missing in what seemed to be an uncontained engine failure. However, investigators haven’t yet confirmed the full details leading to the Ryanair incident.

An uncontained engine failure generally means internal engine parts break apart and escape the casing, sending debris outward.

The cause of the window’s shattering is still under investigation. Boeing said it was supporting the investigation, led by North Macedonia since the incident occurred over its airspace. The Federal Aviation Administration also confirmed that a window broke and said it was ready to support the investigation.

Still, for anyone who remembers what happened on a Southwest Airlines flight in 2018, the story is an uncomfortable reminder of a similar incident that ended in complete tragedy.

The Incident Brings Up Memories Of A Fatal Southwest Airlines Incident

While the cause of the most recent Ryanair incident is still unknown, a similar incident on a 2018 Southwest flight was studied in detail.

In April 2018, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 left New York LaGuardia for Dallas Love Field with 144 passengers and five crew members on board. About 30 minutes after takeoff, the Boeing 737-700 suffered a left engine failure.

The National Transportation Safety Board later determined that a fan blade fractured because of a fatigue crack. The broken blade struck the engine fan case, causing parts of the engine inlet and fan cowl to separate from the aircraft.

The tragedy unfolded when those fragments struck the wing, fuselage, and horizontal stabilizer. One fan cowl fragment struck the fuselage near a cabin window, shattering it. The cabin rapidly depressurized.

Tragically, passenger Jennifer Riordan was partially pulled through the opening and later died from her injuries. Eight other passengers suffered minor injuries. The crew made an emergency descent and landed safely in Philadelphia about 17 minutes after the engine failure.

NTSB’s Recommended Safety Fixes That Aren’t Due Until July 2028

After Southwest Flight 1380, the NTSB issued seven safety recommendations.

The main aircraft-design concern wasn’t just the fan blade. The NTSB also focused on what happened after the blade broke: the engine inlet and fan cowl separated, and debris struck the fuselage near a window.

The agency said the accident showed that a fan blade can fail and release differently than expected during certification testing. It recommended steps to ensure the structural integrity of fan cowls on Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft.

“This accident demonstrates that a fan blade can fail and release differently than that observed during engine certification testing and accounted for in airframe structural analyses,” said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt. “It is important to go beyond routine examination of fan blades; the structural integrity of the engine nacelle components for various airframe and engine combinations needs to be ensured.”

Boeing said in 2019 that it was working with the FAA, engine manufacturers, and industry stakeholders on design enhancements. The company said the changes would improve the inlet and fan cowl designs so those structures could better withstand an engine fan blade-out event.

“All 737 NGs are safe to continue operating normally as the issue is completely mitigated by the fan blade inspections,” Boeing’s statement at the time added. “In addition, Boeing is working on the design enhancements to fully address the safety recommendation from the NTSB. Once approved by the FAA, that design change will be implemented in the existing NG fleet over the longer term. This issue is limited to the 737 NG and does not affect the 737 MAX.”

The FAA has since moved toward those fixes through airworthiness directive action for the following aircraft:

• Boeing 737-600
• Boeing 737-700
• Boeing 737-700C
• Boeing 737-800
• Boeing 737-900
• Boeing 737-900ER

Federal Register documents say Boeing 737 NG operators have until July 31, 2028, to incorporate the recommended modifications. The same FAA document states that aircraft that have not incorporated the modifications cannot operate past that date unless they are upgraded to compliant hardware.

Why A 2016 Southwest Incident Also Comes Up

Southwest Flight 1380 wasn’t the first warning sign.

In August 2016, Southwest Flight 3472, another Boeing 737-700 with CFM56-7B engines, suffered an engine failure after taking off from New Orleans for Orlando. The aircraft ultimately diverted to Pensacola for an emergency landing.

The NTSB report on that event said the left engine failure occurred when a fan blade fractured and exited the engine fan case. Fortunately, the aircraft landed safely about 21 minutes after the engine failure.

No one died in that 2016 incident. It did, however, become part of the pattern regulators later examined.

The NTSB report on Flight 3472 also discussed Southwest Flight 1380, which happened less than two years later. As of January 2020, the NTSB said those two Southwest accidents were the only known CFM56-7B full-length fan blade release events. It also noted that 25 cracked fan blades had been identified by then, including blades found through inspections.

The Ryanair case hasn’t been determined to be the same failure scenario as of the time of writing. It may turn out to involve different damage, different maintenance history, different operating conditions, or a different chain of events.

But it’s clearly getting attention since the visible result looks disturbingly close to the accident that led regulators to order Boeing 737 NG nacelle design changes in the first place.

Pilot Tammie Jo Shults, who flew Southwest Flight 1380, agreed with the similarity, according to Reuters. “They have an engine that goes out,” she said in an interview. “There is external damage. It’s not just an engine that has quit working, and so there’s more drag with that.”

What Travelers Should Know About Boeing 737 NG Planes

The Boeing 737 NG is not the same as the Boeing 737 MAX.

The NG family includes models such as the 737-700 and 737-800. These aircraft are widely used around the world, including by both low-cost carriers and major U.S. airlines.

Boeing said, after the Southwest 1380 investigation, that all 737 NG aircraft were safe to continue operating normally, noting that fan blade inspections mitigated the issue in the meantime while awaiting longer-term design changes.

The FAA’s later airworthiness directive also points to a second layer of protection: strengthening nacelle components so that if a fan blade-out event occurs, parts are less likely to depart the airplane and strike the fuselage or windows.

For passengers, this isn’t something they can really check on before booking. Aircraft assignments can change, and most travelers won’t know whether a particular aircraft has had specific modifications unless explicitly told.

However, aviation safety often advances slowly. While inspection findings and recommendations can happen quickly, hardware redesigns and fleet-wide retrofits can take years to complete.

Flyers should also remember that, although 2018 was not great for air safety, flying is still the safest form of travel, according to statistics.

The question now goes back to investigators

The Ryanair incident is still at the beginning of that process. Investigators need to determine what failed first, what (if anything) hit the window, whether engine parts were involved, how the cabin depressurized, and whether the aircraft had any relevant maintenance history.

Reuters reported that the same plane had diverted back to Thessaloniki on a different flight the previous evening, but the reason for that earlier diversion was unclear.

That detail may become important, or it may not have anything to do with this particular window blowout.

The design changes recommended after the fatal Southwest accident are still moving toward a 2028 deadline. Fortunately, the Ryanair passenger walked away with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.

Still, the unanswered question is whether the flight also exposed an old problem before the industry’s full fix was in place.

TheTravel has contacted both Ryanair and Southwest Airlines for comment on this story and had not yet received a response at the time of publication.