Ryanair CEO: initial probe suggests foreign object damage in smashed window incident

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said that an initial finding from a probe into an incident ​in which a passenger was partly sucked out of ‌a Boeing 737’s roken window suggested “foreign object damage” and was not due to the aircraft’s age or servicing conditions.

The U.S. National Transportation ​Safety Board is investigating the July 10 incident, in which ​a piece of engine broke off the aircraft and ⁠smashed the window shortly after takeoff from Thessaloniki in ​Greece, according to video and the Federal Aviation Administration. The ​plane, headed to Germany, lost pressure and made an emergency landing.

“Initial indication would suggest it looks like a foreign object damage to the ​engine on takeoff at Thessaloniki, but we don’t have, we ​can’t say that definitively,” O’Leary told analysts after Ryanair’s results for the April-June ‌quarter.

O’Leary ⁠said the aircraft was 18 years old and its engine had been fully serviced and overhauled within the last two years. He added that a draft report on the incident ​would be ​issued in about ⁠28 days, followed by a more detailed report.

The event, which had echoes of two Southwest ​Airlines b Boeing 737 NG flights in 2016 ​and 2018, ⁠prompted a re-evaluation of the response to those incidents, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters last week.

Confirmation that damage was ⁠caused by ​an external object could reduce Boeing’s ​and Ryanair’s responsibilities over the incident.