It has been confirmed that remains of a bird were found in the engine of a Ryanair Boeing 737 NG plane, where a passenger was partially sucked through a broken window following a takeoff from Greece back in July.
This was confirmed by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), who are investigating this incident, which saw one passenger suffer serious injuries, after a piece of the engine broke off the plane and smashed the window.
At the time, it was reported that the window was broken by a piece of debris which was detached from one of the plane's engines, according to local Greek media. The passenger in question, from Serbia, was on flight to Memmingen, Germany from Thessaloniki in Greece.
It has since been reported in RTÉ that the NTSB said that bird remains, including feathers were found in "the forward face of IDG oil cooler, one of the thrust reverser blocker door drag links and the lower (6 o'clock position) of the engine fan case near the thrust reverser split flange".
Their preliminary reports on this incident, has said that four suspected bird strikes to the aircraft's No 2 engine were also reported by flight crew in the 12 months which had preceded the incident.
They added: "Bird remains were reportedly found in two of the cases", despite the fact that no damage was found during subsequent maintenance of the plane.
The report also stated that cases of fractured fan blades, as well as three loose fan blade fragments were found in the engine following an examination. The cockpit voice recorder which was referred to in the report said that a loud bang had been recorded about 9 minutes and 20 seconds after the start of the takeoff roll.
The NTSB said the CFM engine had been previously inspected in May with no findings.
It added that it is still looking into whether this incident is also similar to other cases, including one in April 2018 on a US Southwest Airlines flight, where a passenger had died after being partially sucked out of the window.
"The investigative team is aware of previous ... events with similar engine models that resulted in damage to engine inlets or cowlings and fuselage structures," the report said. "Determination of any relevant similarities or details between this accident and previous events remains under investigation".
Ryanair declined to comment, while a spokesperson for CFM had said they were assisting with the investigation.
Prior to this, FAA Administrator, Bryan Bedford had said in an interview last month: "I don't think the early indications are that (the recent Ryanair problem) mimics what the Southwest incident was". (All quotes according to RTÉ).
