A Ryanair flight returned to Greece after a passenger window “dislodged” shortly after take-off, the airline reportedly said.

Several passengers on a European flight experienced a frightening situation after a man appeared to nearly get sucked out of a plane window. The incident happened during a Ryanair flight from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, on the morning of July 10, the airline said.

The Irish airline said in a statement that the flight returned to the airport “shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged inflight.” It said that the “aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal.”

One passenger who was on the flight said “the head and shoulders of one passenger were outside the window” and passengers helped to get him back inside. The passenger received medical assistance on the ground when the plane landed and a “replacement aircraft was arranged” to bring passengers to their destination several hours later.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) told BBC that it was aware of the incident and was investigating.

“The IAA will provide any requested assistance to the aviation safety investigation authority in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate to aid their investigation,” the IAA said.

One female passenger, who was not identified, recalled the harrowing experience on Radio Thessaloniki, according to the Agence France-Press (AFP) saying that “most” of the passengers had fallen asleep before they heard a sound of a tire “bursting.

“We immediately realised there had been a decompression,” she recalled, according to AFP. “There were screams … for a moment I thought someone had accidentally opened the emergency door.”

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

She said other passengers near him helped to pull him back safely into the plane.

The incident allegedly happened over North Macedonia, and was reportedly caused due to a window on the aircraft being broken by a piece of debris that detached from one of the plane’s engines, AFP reported citing Greek media.

A video circulating social media and obtained by BBC showed the aftermath of the flight. In the clip, the aircraft cabin is covered in oxygen masks, which had dropped on people’s seats.

The video then pans to show the alleged window that had broken in the incident. The window appeared to be entirely blown out with jagged pieces of glass surrounding the edges of it. The window shade also appeared to have been almost entirely broken off as well.

• A Tell Media report / Source: People