'If we die, we die together': Wife of man nearly sucked out of Ryanair plane speaks of ordeal



A small plane carrying tourists has crashed in Peru, killing all 13 people on board, according to local news reports and Peruvian officials. The aircraft had been flying over Nazca Lines archaeological site when it went down on Saturday. Eleven passengers and two pilots were on board. The cause of the crash and the identity of the passengers is not yet clear. Nazca Lines is a popular tourist attraction and UNESCO World Heritage site in southern Peru that features ancient drawings in desert sand. "Given the severity of the accident, there are no survivors. We have recovered four bodies so far," Police Major Jorge Andrade said, according to AFP. The crash happened around 13:00 local time (19:00 BST) in the Pueblo Viejo region after the plane departed from an airport in Pisco, Peru. In a statement in Spanish posted online by the Municipalidad Provincial de Nasca, officials expressed "deep sorrow" for the accident and extended "heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased". The statement said the plane belonged to local Peruvian airline Aerodiana. The BBC has contacted the airline for comment. This isn't the first plane to crash over the famed site in the last few decades. In 2022, another small tourist plane crashed during a flight over the Nazca Lines site, killing seven on board. And in 2010, a tourist plane went down over the site, killing six people on board.
Svetlana Grković, who was travelling with her husband Ljubisa Karović from Greece's Thessaloniki to Germany's Memmingen, said has she "hasn't been able to sleep" since the incident. "I immediately reacted and grabbed his legs. I thought: 'If we die, we die together,'" Grković told Serbian outlet Nova. With the help of two other passengers, Grković said she was able to pull her husband - who she said lost consciousness three times - back inside after nearly two minutes."His entire face was deformed and blood was pouring from his nose and mouth."Speaking to Greek public broadcaster ERT Grković said it seemed like part of the plane's engine had broken off, smashing the window next to her husband and causing decompression in the cabin. Other passengers also reported hearing what sounded like an explosion.A technical adviser appointed by the family believes the incident began with a failure in the aircraft's right engine, causing debris to strike and shatter the cabin window before the rapid loss of cabin pressure. That assessment has not been confirmed by investigators.Passengers earlier told local media that Karović had kept his seatbelt on, helping those on board keep hold of him while his head and shoulders were outside.Svetlana Grković said her 61-year-old husband is "seriously injured and in shock". "It's important to me that he's alive... his hand is particularly badly injured, and he's got burns. He's not able to communicate, he doesn't remember the whole event," she said. She told ERT that "whenever he hears about aeroplanes he starts shaking", adding: "I am also in a very bad psychological state... I feared for our lives. I was afraid the plane was going to crash."Figure caption, Watch: Inside Ryanair plane flying with dislodged windowGrković said she has not been able to stop thinking about the ordeal. "I am constantly doing something to take me mind of what happened, but those images just won't leave. Yesterday I got into an elevator, and I suddenly felt a terrible sense of suffocation," she said."Now the question is whether we will ever get on a plane again."The Ryanair flight was in the air for about 10 minutes, tracking data shows, when it abruptly dropped 9,000ft (2,700m).In a statement, Ryanair said its Friday morning flight from Thessaloniki to Memmingen returned "shortly after take-off when a passenger window dislodged in flight"."The aircraft landed normally and passengers returned to the terminal. One passenger requested and received medical assistance on the ground in Thessaloniki," the Irish budget airline said."We immediately realised 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.Figure caption, Video shows inside of plane after window blown outAnother passenger, Sofia, told Radio Thessaloniki: "We thought the plane was going down. The decompression was extreme. It felt like we couldn't breathe. The man who was injured was bleeding and then lost consciousness several times, most likely because of the lack of oxygen and the shock."The aircraft - believed to have been an 18-year-old plane - was operated by Ryanair's subsidiary Malta Air.Thessaloniki airport's operator Fraport Greece said "the incident is currently under investigation by the Hellenic Air and Rail Safety Investigation Authority".The 61-year-old
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