A traveler was reportedly nearly drawn out through a cabin window while airborne on a Ryanair aircraft.

Accounts from those present indicated the man, identified as a Serbian national in his sixties, remained with his head and shoulders outside the opening for several minutes until other passengers succeeded in drawing him back aboard.

In a statement, Ryanair explained that its Friday morning service from Thessaloniki, Greece, to Memmingen, Germany, returned "soon after departure when a passenger window came loose during flight."

The statement added: "The plane touched down without issue and travelers returned to the terminal. One passenger asked for and obtained medical help on the ground in Thessaloniki."

The Irish low-cost carrier noted that "a substitute aircraft was provided to transport passengers onward to Memmingen" hours afterward.

News coverage in Greece and Germany cited travelers who described a sudden loud noise, followed by the window shattering and oxygen masks deploying from overhead soon after the Boeing 737 lifted off.

They suggested the window shattered due to fragments from the jet engine, though Ryanair offered no comment on that possibility.

"We quickly understood decompression had occurred. There were shouts... for an instant I believed someone had opened the emergency exit by mistake," Christina, another traveler, told Radio Thessaloniki.

"The masks fell and a strong odor appeared. The head and shoulders of one passenger extended outside the window. Luckily, he had kept his seat belt fastened."

The aircraft, thought to be an 18-year-old model, was run by Ryanair's Malta Air subsidiary.

The Irish Aviation Authority later informed the BBC it "is aware of the event involving a Ryanair group aircraft, registered and operated by Malta Air, leaving Thessaloniki this morning."

"The IAA will offer any requested support to the aviation safety investigation authority in Greece and the Maltese Civil Aviation Directorate to assist their inquiry," it stated.

In 2018, a traveler perished when engine debris shattered a window on a Southwest Airlines flight in the United States, resulting in partial ejection.