标签： Europe

A mid-flight engine failure on a Ryanair-operated flight last July left one passenger seriously injured after broken engine fragments shattered a cabin window, pulling his head and shoulder partially out of the aircraft, US transportation investigators have confirmed in a newly released preliminary assessment.

The event unfolded on 10 July, when the flight — traveling from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, and operated by Ryanair’s subsidiary Malta Air — suffered a catastrophic fan blade break in its right-side engine just moments after departing Thessaloniki International Airport. As the broken fan blade fragmented, pieces of the engine structure collided with the plane’s cabin, dislodging one window entirely.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators, who took over full probe responsibilities at the request of Greek civil aviation authorities, confirmed that 62-year-old Serbian national Ljubisa Karović was seated adjacent to the broken window. The sudden change in cabin pressure pulled Karović’s head and right shoulder through the opening, leaving him with serious injuries and in acute shock following the incident.

In accounts collected after the emergency landing, Karović’s wife Svetlana Grković Maksimović recalled that she and two other traveling passengers grabbed onto her husband’s legs and held him firmly for several minutes, preventing him from being pulled completely out of the aircraft as the crew worked to stabilize the plane.

The NTSB’s timeline of the incident matches the chaotic sequence reported by crew members. Shortly after takeoff, as the plane climbed to cruising altitude, the flight crew received an alert indicating high engine vibration. Following standard protocol, they reduced power to the affected engine and ran a series of system checks. When vibrations temporarily subsided, the crew resumed the climb on autopilot.

Minutes later, however, vibrations spiked dramatically, followed by a loud bang that alerted the entire cabin to the seriousness of the failure. The crew immediately declared an in-flight emergency and initiated an immediate descent back to Thessaloniki, the departure airport.

Cabin crew members told investigators they felt the growing vibrations, spotted a small amount of smoke in the cabin, and deployed emergency oxygen masks before passengers began calling for help over the partially ejected passenger. The crew ultimately made a safe, uneventful landing back at Thessaloniki, with emergency crews waiting on the tarmac to treat the injured passenger.

Preliminary inspection records show the affected engine underwent routine ultrasonic testing for structural faults in May of this year, and no anomalies or damage were detected during that check. Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary has previously hypothesized that the failure stemmed from foreign object damage — debris from the airfield or environment striking the engine fan blade during or before takeoff. The NTSB has not yet issued a final determination on the root cause of the incident, with the full investigation ongoing.

Six years after one of aviation’s deadliest modern crashes delivered unthinkable grief to families across the globe, a U.S. jury has delivered a landmark verdict holding aircraft manufacturing giant Boeing accountable for the loss of an Irish United Nations engineer who dedicated his life to aiding vulnerable communities. On March 10, 2019, Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET302, a brand-new Boeing 737 MAX jet, crashed just six minutes after departing Addis Ababa for Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board. Among those killed was Michael “Mick” Ryan, a 40-something engineer from County Clare, Ireland, based in Cork, who worked for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and left behind a wife and two children. This week, a Chicago civil jury ruled in favor of Ryan’s widow, Naoise Connolly Ryan, awarding her family $29 million (£21.5 million) in compensatory damages after she brought a civil wrongful death claim against Boeing over the disaster. The case marks one of the few wrongful death claims against the manufacturer to go to full trial, rather than being resolved through out-of-court settlement. Lawyers for the family say the verdict is far more than a financial award—it is a critical step toward securing long-overdue accountability and justice for the lives lost to the 737 MAX design failures that caused two deadly crashes within five months of each other. “While no amount of money can ever bring Mick back or undo the devastating loss his family has carried for six years, we are deeply grateful that the jury carefully weighed all the evidence and reached this decision,” lead family attorney Steven C Marks, of the Florida-based law firm Podhurst Orseck, told reporters after the verdict. Marks praised Connolly Ryan for her unwavering resolve in pursuing accountability, noting that she had fought for years to shine a light on the failures that led to her husband’s death. “Though this verdict is a major milestone in our fight, the larger work of holding Boeing responsible for this tragedy—and ensuring nothing like this can ever happen again to another family—remains just as urgent,” he added. In a prepared statement responding to the verdict, a Boeing spokesperson expressed remorse for the lives lost in both the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the earlier fatal 737 MAX crash of Lion Air Flight 610 off Indonesia in October 2018, which killed 189 people. “We are deeply sorry to all who lost loved ones on Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302,” the statement read. “While we have resolved nearly all of these claims through settlements, families are entitled to pursue their claims through the court process, and we respect their right to do so.” Beyond his role as a beloved husband and father, Ryan dedicated more than a decade of his career to delivering life-saving aid across some of the world’s most crisis-stricken regions. A memorial page published by the UN after his death details his extraordinary impact on vulnerable communities across Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. Most notably, Ryan led infrastructure projects in Bangladesh that built flood and landslide-resistant shelters for tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees who had fled violence in Myanmar, work that saved countless lives at a time of unprecedented humanitarian crisis. He also helped construct critical medical treatment centers in Liberia during the 2014–2016 West African Ebola outbreak, when access to care was a matter of life and death for thousands of people. Speaking to BBC News NI, Marks emphasized that Ryan’s loss was felt far beyond his immediate family, saying: “Ryan will be missed by the world at large, because that was who he served. It’s tragic to the public, but it pales in comparison to the loss for the family. His impact was worldwide.” Investigations into the 2019 crash confirmed the disaster was caused by long-concealed design flaws in the 737 MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), an automated anti-stall system that was added to the jet to compensate for its repositioned larger engines. After takeoff, two angle-of-attack sensors on Flight ET302 returned conflicting data, which triggered the MCAS system to repeatedly push the aircraft’s nose downward in a mistaken attempt to prevent a stall. Ethiopian accident investigators confirmed that pilots followed all required procedures to disable the faulty system, but were ultimately unable to overcome its repeated, uncommanded nose-down inputs before the jet crashed into the ground near Bishoftu, just 30 miles southeast of Addis Ababa. The impact of the crash was so severe that both of the plane’s engines were buried 10 meters deep in a 28-meter-wide crater, leaving little intact wreckage for recovery teams. The two 737 MAX crashes led to a 20-month global grounding of the aircraft fleet, a massive corporate scandal for Boeing, and sweeping changes to aviation safety regulations globally. To date, Boeing has paid more than $60 billion in fines, compensation, and legal settlements related to the crashes, though the latest verdict serves as a reminder that outstanding claims remain, and that many families have chosen to pursue their cases in court to secure public accountability rather than private settlement.

A mid-flight emergency that unfolded over Greece last July has been detailed in a new preliminary report from U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators, outlining how broken engine components shattered a passenger window minutes after takeoff, leaving a 61-year-old man partially pulled outside the aircraft before quick-acting fellow travelers pulled him back to safety.

The incident occurred on July 10 aboard a Malta Air-operated Boeing 737-800, a subsidiary of European budget airline giant Ryanair, which had just departed Thessaloniki, a major port city in northern Greece. According to the NTSB’s account, a fan blade inside the jet’s right engine fractured and broke loose, sending high-speed debris tearing through the fuselage and destroying the adjacent window in row 11, where the injured passenger was seated.
Investigators discovered bird remains within the damaged engine, leading to preliminary speculation that the aircraft may have collided with a flock of birds during its climb after takeoff. Still, the agency has not yet reached a final conclusion on what exactly caused the fan blade to fail.

After the structural failure, the cabin immediately lost pressure, triggering the drop-down of emergency oxygen masks and filling the cabin with visible smoke or fog, crew members told investigators. It was only moments later that crew noticed passengers standing and calling for help, after the 61-year-old window-seat passenger was pulled partially into the broken window opening by rapid decompression. Fellow travelers worked quickly to haul him back into the cabin, a move that likely prevented a fatal outcome.

The injured man was relocated to an empty seat in row 12, where a passenger who worked as a physician provided immediate first aid for his injuries – which included neck and shoulder damage and friction burns from the decompression event. Other passengers worked with crew to retrieve a heavy metal box, which they positioned to block the broken opening and reduce air flow into the cabin until the jet could make an emergency landing.
Footage captured by passengers on board and later shared by local outlet Radio Thessaloniki documents the chaotic scene: passengers wearing dropped oxygen masks after pressure loss, a clear view of the blown-out window, and first responders working the aisle after the plane landed safely back at Thessaloniki Airport.

Maintenance records reviewed by investigators show the failed right engine’s fan blades had undergone required ultrasonic inspections as recently as May 2026, with no damage detected in that check or a prior inspection in November 2025. Over the 12 months leading up to the incident, however, flight crews reported four separate suspected bird strikes involving the same engine, with bird remains confirmed after two of those events.

This incident marked an unusual handover of investigative authority: under international aviation regulations, Greece’s Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority permitted the NTSB to lead the probe, with Greek experts participating in the process. The NTSB issued a public reprimand to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary earlier this month after O’Leary told investors the investigation was already focused on foreign object damage, ruling out issues with the aircraft’s age or maintenance. The agency clarified that no causes have been ruled out at this preliminary stage, and O’Leary was not authorized to publicly disclose investigative details.

Jeff Guzzetti, a veteran former NTSB and FAA investigator who reviewed the preliminary findings on behalf of the Associated Press, noted that maintenance checks were completed on schedule per regulatory requirements. He added that investigators will almost certainly focus on how the inspections were conducted, and whether the four prior suspected bird strikes left hidden pre-existing damage that weakened the fan blade before the final failure.
“ We already understand the sequence of events that day, and even have some ideas about root causes, but there are still critical unanswered questions the NTSB will work to resolve,” Guzzetti explained.
The AP reached out to Ryanair, Boeing, and CFM International – the manufacturer of the 737-800’s engine – for comment on the NTSB’s preliminary findings, but had not received responses as of the report’s publication.
This engine failure is not an isolated incident for CFM-produced powerplants: at least two prior fatal or near-fatal incidents have involved broken engine parts penetrating the cabin. In 2018, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight was killed after being partially pulled out of a broken window caused by a fractured fan blade, and a similar blade failure occurred on another Southwest jet over Florida in 2016.

Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the 189-seat narrow-body jet was originally delivered new to Ryanair in 2008. Six minutes after departing Thessaloniki, the aircraft had climbed past 15,000 feet before pilots initiated an immediate descent to 6,000 feet to burn excess fuel over 30 minutes, before landing safely back at Thessaloniki roughly one hour after takeoff. All passengers disembarked normally after landing, with only the injured passenger requesting and receiving on-the-ground medical care.

A centuries-old archaeological treasure has risen from the shrinking waters of Rome’s iconic Tiber River, as a prolonged dry spell pushes the Italian capital into a growing water crisis. The stone remains of Nero’s Bridge, a structure that once linked central Rome to the right bank of the Tiber just steps from the famous St. Peter’s Basilica, are now fully exposed after weeks of near-total rainfall sent water levels plummeting to well below seasonal averages.

While the bridge bears the name of the infamous early Roman emperor Nero, archaeological scholars have traced its origins back even further in history. Antonella Bonini, an archaeologist with Rome’s cultural heritage superintendency, explained the name connection comes from the Emperor’s association with the surrounding area: Nero’s circus, the site where Christian tradition holds Apostle Peter was martyred, sits on the land that now houses the Vatican. But research indicates the bridge was actually constructed by Nero’s uncle, the Emperor Caligula, with evidence confirming it stood as early as 39 AD, nearly 2,000 years ago.

The dramatic drop in Tiber water levels that revealed the ancient structure is a symptom of a worsening water emergency across Rome. Giovanni Giganti, coordinator of the Rome civil protection service’s water management center, confirmed the river’s current flow has fallen below 80 cubic meters per second. That figure is roughly half the historic average flow for the month of July. Giganti added that while winter brought above-average precipitation to the region this year, extended dry spells that followed through spring and early summer created the current crisis, putting stress on the city’s water resources and revealing long-submerged landmarks along the river’s course.

The unexpected emergence of Nero’s Bridge has drawn public and archaeological attention, offering a rare chance to study a well-preserved piece of Rome’s ancient infrastructure that has spent most of its modern history hidden beneath the Tiber’s flowing waters.

In a surprise move announced Thursday, Malian President Assimi Goïta has issued a presidential pardon to Yann Vezilier, a French national who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for his alleged role in plotting to overthrow Goïta’s ruling junta.

Vezilier was originally accused alongside a group of Malian army generals and dozens of soldiers of attempting to destabilize the current administration, with Malian officials claiming he was acting on behalf of French intelligence services. A year after the charges were laid, the clemency grant comes as a sudden reversal of the West African nation’s previous legal position, and no official explanation has yet been provided for what drove the policy shift.

The French foreign ministry, which previously dismissed the espionage allegations against Vezilier as completely unfounded, has remained silent on the pardon announcement to date. In an official statement posted to its Facebook page, the Malian government clarified that the act of mercy does not challenge the guilty verdict reached during the defendant’s trial, which the government says followed all legal procedures and fully protected Vezilier’s right to a defense. As a condition of the pardon, Vezilier is being immediately expelled from Malian territory.

The pardon unfolds against a backdrop of deepening political instability and unrelenting security crisis in Mali, a former French colony that has been grappling with a violent Islamist insurgency since 2012. Goïta, who seized power in a 2021 military coup that he justified by citing the ongoing security failure, has overseen a period of worsening violence, with jihadist attacks growing in frequency and reach across the country.

When Vezilier and other co-defendants were arrested last year, then-Security Minister General Daoud Aly Mohammedine confirmed that authorities had detained what he called “fringe elements of the Malian armed security forces” for conspiring to undermine the country’s republican institutions. He asserted at the time that the group of accused soldiers and civilian co-conspirators had received backing from foreign powers, specifically naming Vezilier as a proxy for French intelligence that had worked to recruit Malian political leaders, civil society figures and military personnel to the plot.

In the months since Vezilier’s conviction, political and security conditions in Mali have continued to deteriorate. In April, a suicide truck bombing targeting the defense minister’s residence on the outskirts of the capital Bamako killed the top defense official during a surge of militant attacks across the country. Shortly after the attack, Goïta appointed himself to the vacant defense minister post, a move widely interpreted as an effort to consolidate control over the security sector amid growing threats. Later that same month, Islamist fighters advanced on Bamako, enforcing a partial blockade of the capital and full blockades of other major population centers including the central city of Ségou.

In May 2025, the ruling military junta moved to dissolve all registered political parties in the country, a decision that came in response to rare large-scale anti-government protests. Former Malian Prime Minister Moussa Mara described the crackdown as a devastating blow to national reconciliation efforts that had been initiated by the junta itself after seizing power. When Goïta took power in 2021, he pledged to hold democratic elections within two years to transition back to civilian rule. That commitment has since been abandoned: last July, the junta extended the country’s political transition by an additional five years, extending Goïta’s rule until at least 2030.

In recent years, Mali has cut diplomatic and security ties with its former colonial ruler France, joining neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in turning to Russian military allies for support to counter the regional jihadist insurgency. To date, the security partnership has failed to deliver meaningful improvements in stability across the Sahel, with attacks on civilian and government targets continuing to rise.