Bird remains found in engine after Ryanair window blowout injured man
What's new: Investigators found prior suspected bird strikes on the same engine and sent remains to a Smithsonian lab for analysis.
U.S. investigators found bird remains in the damaged engine of a Ryanair-operated Boeing 737-800 after a July 10 flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen suffered a fan blade failure that shattered a cabin window and seriously injured a passenger. The National Transportation Safety Board said fragments from the right engine struck the fuselage and broke the window, leaving a 61-year-old Serbian passenger partially sucked into the opening until other passengers pulled him back inside. The crew declared an emergency and returned to Thessaloniki. Maintenance records showed the engine’s fan blades passed ultrasonic inspections in May 2026 and November 2025, but crews had reported four suspected bird strikes to the same engine in the previous year.